that much bitcoin price It fell below $70,000 early Monday morning as volatility increased ahead of this month’s much-anticipated block reward halving.
Bitcoin is currently trading at around $69,565, down 1.1% on the day, based on CoinGecko data, but is maintaining a nearly 4% rise during the week.
With the Bitcoin halving scheduled for around April 20, measures that track the cryptocurrency’s volatility have surged in recent days.
Bitcoin’s 30-day annualized realized volatility peaked at 63.76% last week and remained above 60% through this week’s close, according to data from Glassnode. This is the highest level since August 2022. Realized volatility tracks the standard deviation of Bitcoin returns. It represents an average over a period of time, with higher values reflecting increased price risk over that period.
Bitcoin volatility surges ahead of April halving
Late last month, Beam CEO Andy Bromberg said: decryption Bitcoin’s recent volatility reflects a “crisis of confidence” among traders ahead of the block reward halving.
The Bitcoin halving, which takes place every four years, halves the block rewards allocated to miners as a means of controlling the distribution of the fixed 21 million supply. At the 2024 halving, mining rewards will decrease from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
Historically, the price of the cryptocurrency has surged whenever Bitcoin has halved, but some analysts have warned that prices could reflect this. Meanwhile, a recent report from Coinbase pointed out that previous price increases are correlated with broader macro events, including: The coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns have led to “unusually loose monetary policy and historically strong fiscal stimulus.”
The 2024 halving is also unusual, as the price of Bitcoin is at an all-time high. from now on The halving was underway in January with the approval of a number of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs. With ETFs pushing Bitcoin out of the market and halvings to reduce the supply of new Bitcoins, there could be a resulting supply crisis. Some analysts point to this as an optimistic indicator as the halving approaches.
