Advertisement
Advertisement

Bitcoin – Is the Damage Done from the BCH Hard Fork or Can the Bulls Recover?

By:
Bob Mason
Published: Dec 5, 2018, 00:17 UTC

The bulls will be looking for a 2nd consecutive day of gains to restore confidence, a positive early part of the day a must for the Bitcoin bulls.

Bitcoin Newspaper

Bitcoin gained 1.86% on Tuesday, partially reversing a 6.51% fall on Monday, to end the day at $3,981.9, Bitcoin unable to hold onto $4,000 levels by the day’s end for a 2nd consecutive day.

It was a mixed day for the cryptomarket, with the top 30 seeing some heavy gains and losses, the likes of Waves rallying by more than 40%, whilst investor would have wished to have avoided Dodgecoin’s 7.7% slide, with Bitcoin Cash ABC also under the hammer, sliding by in excess of 6% as investors continue to punish the post fork duo.

Hash rates have done Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin Cash SV few favours, with post hard fork hash war not only over, but also leaving both sides beaten, the respective hash rates having tumbled to low and relatively tight ranges over the last week.

Institutional investors may have gotten a good insight into the ramifications of discontent within a particularly network and, when considering the frequency of hard forks and the need for them, dispute between miners and developers should certainly be a concern.

In previous hard forks, investors had not only enjoyed a pre-fork rally, but also free coins at the end of it and investing ahead of a hard fork was as much of a sure thing as the sun rising in the morning, until the November fork that is.

Another shift in the market dynamics for investors to contend with, though this time around, the reality has dawned that the mining cartels are able to inflict significant damage and one can only imagine the ramifications to the broader cryptomarket had the hard fork been a Bitcoin fork and not a Bitcoin Cash fork.

The dust may have settled, but the market has yet to see any major shift in sentiment towards consensus algorithms adopted by the respective blockchains, the evolution of hybrid consensus algorithms that have been developed to prevent a 51% attack seemingly set for a brighter future than the likes of Bitcoin and its PoW algo.

Tuesday’s partial recovery would have provided some comfort to the Bitcoin bulls, but it would have been bitter sweet, Bitcoin managing to hit $4,100 levels by the early afternoon only to give up $4,000 levels, investors eager to lock in on the highs, with the recent return in volatility and regulatory uncertainty pinning Bitcoin and the broader market back.

It’s going to take something special for some of the more bullish end of year price forecasts to materialise, with Bitcoin appearing to be safely in the hands of the bears with just a few weeks remaining.

On the news front, the bulls were out in force looking to shore up support for the beleaguered cryptomarket, with focus now shifting to 2019, 2018 officially being a washout year and best forgotten for most if not all.

Talks of Bitcoin surpassing last year all-time high by the end of next may fall on a few more deaf ears however, one too many an investor likely to have been bitten by a bear or more over the course of the last 12-months.

Get Into Cryptocurrency Trading Today

About the Author

Bob Masonauthor

With over 20 years of experience in the finance industry, Bob has been managing regional teams across Europe and Asia and focusing on analytics across both corporate and financial institutions. Currently he is covering developments relating to the financial markets, including currencies, commodities, alternative asset classes, and global equities.

Did you find this article useful?

Advertisement