Currently priced at $20,980.14, the bitcoins (BTC) has enjoyed a significant rally over the past two weeks with an increase of 26.82% from 1 January 2023.
This is the first time the dominant cryptocurrency in the ecosystem has seen such a strong evolution since exiting the bear market nearly a year ago, which has generated renewed investor enthusiasm.
Bitcoin adoption at the time of the bear market
While Bitcoin aims to establish a strong and solid bullish rally over time, the latest available data indicates that the number of individuals who may own the crypto-asset is also increasing significantly. In this regard, the data collected by CoinMarketCap indicates that as of Friday, January 13, the total number of unique Bitcoin holders amounts to 43,540,424.
Furthermore, the volume of Bitcoin in the last 24 hours exceeds the 24.79 billion dollars, which represents an increase of 36.7% compared to the previous day’s data, while its total market capitalization is now 376.40 billion of dollars.
The increase in the number of BTC owners indicates some growth in the adoption curve of the major cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is increasingly moving towards widespread mainstream adoption, but there are still some obstacles in its way. The main one is that of hacks and frauds that have hit the crypto sector, and bridges in particular, because it is the factor that most affects investor confidence.
It is also necessary to note the aspect of the legal framework that surrounds the ecosystem, this not being for the moment completely clear and perfectly defined like the many legal procedures currently ongoing between the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and various crypto projects such as XRP.
Furthermore, a report released by Finbold a few days ago indicates that currently one in 184 people are 0.54% of the world’s population own a crypto wallet containing between $1 and $99 in BTC. However you need to keep in mind that a single individual is capable of owning multiple Bitcoin addresses, so this figure is an estimate rather than a true indicator.
Preparing for the next bull run and reviewing the halving mechanism
Bitcoin is gradually heading towards a bear market exit after several weeks of price stagnation. During the year 2022, the asset has experienced successive particularly high levels of decline: the price of Bitcoin has fallen to -70% compared to its historical highest level located at $64,863this while most of the altcoins are also making record lows until -90%.
However, this downward movement has brought its price back into a potentially attractive area for investors looking to enter the market. These likely take into account the cyclical aspect of the cryptocurrency market, and more specifically Bitcoin due to the halve.
As a reminder, the halve is a mechanism in the Bitcoin protocol that halves the reward given to BTC miners when they register new blocks on the blockchain. This process takes place once every four years or so, and this in a systematic way.
Knowledgeable investors and technical analysts will have noticed that there is, up until now, a correlation between bull run / bear run phases and halvings. The latter has a positive influence on the price of Bitcoin, even if the rise from each historical peak is still lower and lower with each generation.
With an overall duration of just over 300 days, the bear market has affected the entire crypto industry since the beginning of March 2022. Comparing historical data, we observe that the previous bear markets of 2014 and 2018 lasted respectively 630 And 448 days. It is therefore very likely that we will see a global market readiness move for the return of the bull run.