Media magnate Steve Forbes recently criticized cryptocurrencies for their volatility, saying that one day they can be a steak, and the next day they can turn into dog food. Price fluctuations have accompanied the digital currency market since its inception and have been an important reason for the interest of traders in cryptocurrency. But it seems that something has gone wrong in the last couple of months. As strange as it seems, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) have been demonstrating unusual stability since late May. And while a relatively stable dynamic for Bitcoin’s price can be due to the absence …

Bitcoin (BTC) could be heading for a repeat of its late-2018 sell-off, data warns as realized volatility reaches almost three-year highs. Uploading fresh charts on July 6, on-chain analyst Skew drew concerning comparisons to Bitcoin in its 2018 bear market. Bitcoin 10-day realized volatility dips to 20% Analyzing realized volatility, Skew noted that the last time the metric hit 20%, a mass capitulation event followed, during which BTC/USD hit $3,100. “Last time we reached that level, we had the great sell-off of November 2018 shortly after,” the analyst warned. Realized volatility refers to historical volatility measurements, with 20% on the …

Nobody can really predict Bitcoin’s (BTC) price volatility. But one thing is becoming painfully predictable when the price of Bitcoin suddenly lurches in one direction or another: One or more of the major cryptocurrency exchanges simply goes offline. This leaves users powerless to prevent losses from spiraling, as they are left unable to trade or buy more positions as a hedge. These outages have happened time and time again. Most recently, as Bitcoin started climbing toward the $10,000 mark, Coinbase went offline. At the time it happened, Cointelegraph reported that this is the fourth time in the last three months …

Pierre Rochard, a Bitcoin strategist at Kraken, believes Bitcoin to be the perfect hedge against uncertainty, despite its high volatility. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Rochard pointed out the dichotomy of uncertainty and risk. While the former is quantifiable, the latter applies to situations where the odds can’t be calculated. Due to its volatility, Bitcoin is a high-risk asset. However Bitcoin’s volatility can be hedged against using derivative contracts. “You can insure yourself against volatility by buying puts or selling futures,” he points out. As Rochard noted, the quantifiable risks are far smaller than the amount of unquantifiable uncertainty. The …

It’s been a good week for Bitcoin. After languishing at around $6,700, the cryptocoin is up more than 6 percent over the last week to take it above $7,000. And the next halving is now less than three weeks away. Changpeng Zhao is looking further ahead. He predicts that in a few months, as governments implement quantitative easing measures to stabilize coronavirus-hit economies, Bitcoin will rise. “Mathematics works, he told BlockDown 2020, a two-day virtual conference. “If you increase supply of the fiat currency and Bitcoin is a limited asset, mathematics will eventually work.” For crypto-ATM services like DigitalMint and …

The Binance-owned crypto derivatives exchange, FTX, has introduced oil futures following the recent record crash in U.S. oil prices — which fell as low as minus-$40 on April 20. FTX’s contracts will expire at the spot price of West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, plus $100 to protect against negative settlement prices. The exchange notes that should the spot price of oil fall below minus-$100, “FTX OIL contracts “can theoretically expire negative.” FTX launches crypto-based oil contract trading FTX comprises a top-10 ranked Bitcoin (BTC) futures exchange by both volume and open interest. The Binance-owned exchange is the largest to offer …

Volatility has been the dominant theme in financial markets lately. As uncertainty around COVID-19 and its impact on the economy deepens, markets have been swinging wildly. We’ve seen the S&P 500 falling off a cliff as well as risk assets across the board taking a beating. Cryptocurrency markets have been no different and have exhibited extreme volatility. Amid the pessimism, Bitcoin (BTC) broke below the $4,000 mark on Black Thursday and fell nearly 50% from recent highs. It’s been over a month since the crash, and though we have seen prices bouncing back sharply, the sentiment has not improved. There …

As cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile, crypto players can’t stop arguing about what really impacts the price of certain coins and what does not. Some crypto pundits believe a larger amount of tokens staked in Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchains could push the price upwards by reducing the circulating supply, making the remaining tokens more valuable. But blockchain and crypto analytics firm Messari has crunched the numbers and reports that there is little correlation between the two. Announcements correlate with price though In an April 1 blog post, Wilson Withiam, a researcher at the Messari analytics team, provided an analysis of 21 …

Bitcoin (BTC) has fallen 4% in the past 24 hours, but its losses may be down to an old culprit which has already sparked market volatility and selling pressure. According to data from online monitoring resource Skew, March 27 will see the expiry of Bitcoin options open interest worth 49,400 BTC ($328 million). BTC price choppy after $7K rejection By far the largest expiry from now until the end of June, the event may already be pressuring BTC/USD, which saw rejection at $7,000 on Thursday. Having fallen to lows of $6,495, the pair is now trading at around $6,640, but …

Huobi’s derivatives trading platform, Huobi DM, has announced a new ‘partial liquidation’ feature that aims to limit trading losses. “We introduced the partial liquidation mechanism on March 5th as part of a system upgrade we rolled out that increased Huobi DM’s throughput, response speed, and stability,” a representative from Huobi told Cointelegraph, confirming the updates are already live. The announcement combines the partial liquidation mechanism, in conjunction with a circuit breaker for decreased risk. Sudden market swings can immediately liquidate highly leveraged positions and cause extensive user losses, as seen during the last week’s Bitcoin price crash. The platform’s new …

Bitcoin just suffered a 40% price crash while global markets were shaken at their core by the Coronavirus pandemic. Chief market analyst Naeem Aslam and veteran trader Charlie Burton told Cointelegraph what sense they make of this bloodbath and their strategies to survive it. Why did Bitcoin fall with the rest of the markets? Naeem Aslam explained the Bitcoin plunge as a direct consequence of the equity market crumbling amidst Coronavirus-driven panic and what it means for investors: “They have no other option but to liquidate some of their positions in other assets such as Bitcoin [...] In order to …

Bitcoin (BTC) futures are fast becoming the darling of institutional investors as open interest spikes 60% since the start of 2020. Data from monitoring resource Skew Markets shows that open interest across major futures offerings from exchanges now stands at more than $4 billion. BitMEX, OKEx futures open interest passes $1B Over half of that stems from two companies — derivatives giant BitMEX and crypto exchange OKEx — both of which now have open interest in excess of $1 billion. Bitcoin futures open interest (exchanges only). Source: Skew Markets On Monday, fellow platform Deribit confirmed month-on-month Bitcoin futures options turnover …