Bitcoin’s (BTC) 32% weekly rally became bears’ worst nightmare as Friday’s $860-million options expiry is approaching. After breaking the $54,000 level, over 99% of the bearish bets using put (sell) options are likely to become worthless. Bears are in a dangerous position, particularly as Bloomberg’s Crypto Outlook pointed out that Bitcoin’s $50,000 resistance was about to flip support. Senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone cited such factors as increasing adoption along with a diminishing supply on exchanges. Bloomberg also noted that traditional finance investors’ concerns surged after the protection against the possibility of a United States government default rose to its …

Cryptocurrency markets rallied 12.5% over the past seven days to reach a $2.44 trillion market capitalization. However, that move doesn't seem to be inspiring confidence because the same level was tested 16 days ago when a 27% retrace followed Ether's (ETH) attempt to break $3,650 over the next six days. Regulation seems to be a key concerning factor for buyers as the United States House of Representatives is expected to vote on the $1 trillion infrastructure bill this month. In addition to defining who qualifies as a broker, the legislation would impose anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) type requirements …

Bitcoin (BTC) has been trading in a descending pattern since the strong $53,000 rejection that occurred on Sept. 7, and the $3.4-billion futures contracts liquidation along with China’s ban on crypto trading appear to have severely impacted traders’ morale. Adding to the negative sentiment, major crypto exchanges such as Binance and Huobi halted some services in mainland China, and some of the largest Ethereum mining pools, like SparkPool and BeePool were forced to shut down completely. Based on the above chart, it is possible to understand why buyers placed 80% of their bets at $44,000 or higher. However, the past …

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has charged 12 New York-based crypto options businesses with allegedly failing to register with the regulatory body. In a Thursday press release, the CFTC outlined that it is charging 14 entities in total, with the 12 crypto-focused firms all on the hook for failing to register as futures commission merchants (FCMs). All of the firms were "allegedly based in New York." The other two companies have allegedly posted misleading information about their National Futures Association (NFA) membership and registration with the CFTC. The listed crypto options providers include relatively unknown names such as Bitfxprofit, …

"Don't fight the trend" is an old saying in the markets, and there are other variants of the phrase like "never catch a falling knife." The bottom line is that traders should not try to anticipate trend reversals, or even worse, try to improve their average price while losing money. It really doesn't matter whether one is trading soy futures, silver, stocks or cryptocurrencies. Markets generally move in cycles, which can last from a few days to a couple of years. In Bitcoin's (BTC) case, it's hard for anyone to justify a bullish case by looking at the chart below. …

China bans Bitcoin (BTC) — again. No, we’re not traveling back in time. On Sept. 24, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) published a new set of measures to promote inter-departmental coordination on cracking down on crypto activity. The measures intended to “cut off payment channels, dispose of relevant websites and mobile applications in accordance with the law.” Most investors may have missed the $3 billion Bitcoin (BTC) and $1.5 billion Ether (ETH) monthly options expiry that took place less than one hour before the news of the crypto ban came out. According to “Molly”, a former Bitcoin Magazine contributor, …

The growth of the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector has been a recurrent headline throughout 2021 and to date, hundreds of billions of dollars in crypto assets are locked on protocols across numerous blockchain networks and earning a yield for their holders. What started off as a simple Ethereum-based swap interface that allowed ERC-20 tokens to be exchanged in a decentralized manner, called Uniswap, has exploded into a vast ecosystem full of decentralized exchanges, yield farms, lending protocols and staking platforms. As development continues and older protocols become more established, newer projects have emerged to incorporate more pieces from the traditional …

This week's combination of bearish factors was enough to bring Bitcoin's (BTC) price down to its lowest levels in 46 days, and this nearly obliterated 86% of the $2 billion September call (buy) options that expire on Sept. 24. There's still room for some surprises, especially considering the deadline is 8:00 UTC on Sept. 24. However, the incentives for the bears seem small because the sub-$40,000 test on Sept. 21 caused less than $250 million in futures contracts liquidations. On Sept. 22, Evergrande Group eased some default fears after it confirmed that it would make an interest payment on an …

After 46 consecutive days of trading above $42,000, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) started to show weakness on Sept. 21. Over the last three days, the 13% accumulated loss was enough to erase the hard-earned gains added since Aug. 6. Historicals also show that the previous bearish cycle took 79 days to regain the all-important $42,000 level. Traders' attention turned to the start of the United States Federal Reserve's monetary meeting, where the financial authority is expected to indicate whether it will curtail the $120 billion monthly asset repurchase stimulus program. Curiously, as all this takes place, China's equity markets, …

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, continues limiting its services amid the ongoing global regulatory scrutiny, announcing new trading restrictions in Australia. Existing Binance users in Australia will have 90 days to reduce and close their positions for products such as cryptocurrency futures, options and leveraged tokens, the exchange announced Monday. Effective from Friday, Australian users will no longer be able to increase or open new positions for derivatives products on Binance. Users will still be able to top-up their margin balances to prevent liquidations and margin calls, the announcement notes. After Dec. 23, Binance users in …

Over the past ten days, Bitcoin (BTC) price tested the $44,500 resistance on multiple occasions, and this marked a 16% drawdown from the previous week's $53,000 local top. Not even the $3.4 billion long futures contracts liquidations that occurred on Sept. 7 while BTC dropped by 18.7% was enough to eliminate bulls' optimism, according to options markets data. If historical data plays any role in the price of Bitcoin, the month of September presented negative performances in four of the previous five years, and BTC finished August trading at $47,110. Regardless of the price, adoption by institutional investors has been …

Traders were caught flat-footed on Sept. 7 after a sharp collapse in the price of Bitcoin (BTC) saw the digital asset fall below $43,000, and this led to widespread liquidations in derivative markets as more than $3.54 billion was liquidated. Amount of Liquidations in the past 24 hours by exchanges in total $3.54 was liquidated! In the past 24 hours, 330,243 traders were liquidated. The largest single liquidation order happened on @HuobiGlobal #BTC $BTC value $43.7M Data source: @bybt_com pic.twitter.com/hNgctWgCgP — CryptoDiffer (@CryptoDiffer) September 7, 2021 Bullish sentiment had been on the rise coming out of the Labor Day holiday …