Cryptocurrency analysts gave varied predictions on Bitcoin after recent market volatility, with projections ranging from cautious optimism to scepticism. One of MN Capital's co-founders, Michael van de Poppe, is still positive about this. In the past halving, he noted that the retracement in Bitcoin was attributed to difficulties that miners faced. On the other hand, veteran trader Peter Brandt pointed to a worrying trend of "lower highs and lower lows" in spite of massive market events like the introduction of the ETF and the halving.
The $54,274 print in recent weeks is a low that insists on emphasizing the damage. The digital currency has been on a failure to lock in upside exposure for nine days in July above $60,000—the worst performance since February from setting the all-time high of $73,679 in the month of March.
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There are some positive signs, though. On July 17, the digital currency bounced impressively to $65,735, demonstrating strongly that the market is not a pushover, with the price being well supported. So far, Pierre Rochard, vice president of research at Riot Platforms, foresees the possibility of Bitcoin rallying to $100,000 by mid-2025, taking on a cautious yet optimistic view.
Contrasting the above with the view of price targets from the not-so-optimistic trader Marco Johanning, he estimates Bitcoin between very conservative price targets of $81,000 to $94,000 and even sounds very sceptical of $100,000 in the foreseeable future.
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Crypto Exchange Volumes Tank 21.8% as the Market Faces Mt. Gox and Government Sales Pressure
Independent reserve trading in terms of exchange has dropped by 21.8% for the month of June; meanwhile, this is its third consecutive month of losing ground in combined spot and derivatives trading since March. All latest released data from the centralised exchanges through July 17 amounted to $4.2 trillion, which represents a 53% decrease from its peak mark in March at $9 trillion.
A 9.7% drop in Open Interest across major crypto derivatives exchanges has been observed due to massive liquidations as a result of the heavy correction in the markets, especially in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. One of the main catalytic influences behind this correction is doubt about selling pressure on the market, the now-collapsed Japanese exchange Mt. Gox, and the large sale of bitcoins by the German government.
Bybit's market share gains in Dubai and second runner-up Singapore's BitGet rose from 3.5% to 3.7%. Binance was the flipside of the equation. The company lost ground on its market share to 31.2% from through July 2023, versus 40.4% a year ago last month.
On the institutional side, Chicago Mercantile Exchange futures trading for June reported a record amount of $103 billion, down 11.5%, where such higher declines were recorded where Bitcoin and Ether futures volumes were lower. Options trading in ETH on CME fell by 58%, amounting to $408 million, even with speculation in the breakthrough of the spot Ether ETFs said to be launching later in July.
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EEA Launches DeFi Risk Assessment Guidelines To Control Risks Towards DeFi Protocols
Enterprise Ethereum Alliance this week released Version 1 of its DeFi Risk Assessment Guidelines as DeFi protocol vulnerabilities continue to multiply. Built by the EEA DRAMA Working Group with contributions from industry leaders such as Consensys and CertiK, the new guidelines are built to counter risks in six tracks: governance, tokenomics, software, liquidity, regulatory compliance, and market risks.
Budorin Dyma, CEO of Hacken and co-chair of the EEA DRAMA, noted extensively on the guidelines in a manner where he presented it to create a standardized frame for founders and developers in making improvements toward the security associated with their products. To help manage this risk associated with oracles, smart contracts, and bridges, the document describes some best practices in user education, bug bounty programs, and security updates.
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The adaptability of these guidelines to fast-moving threats and regulatory landscapes was among the points Chaals Nevile, Director of Technical Programs at EEA, teased out, elaborating on plans for periodic updates to address new challenges.
Regulators and licensing bodies can use the document to assess and license DeFi projects since it confirms that they have been adopted in updating requirements for DLT foundations in regulatory environments like ADGM.
