News Updates May 15, 2023
1. Bitcoin price hits $27.2K, but new analysis warns more losses ‘likely’
Bitcoin may be up 7.5% since May 12, but BTC price action is not giving everyone cause for positivity.
Bitcoin sought to recover $27,000 into the May 14 weekly close as volatility picked up out of hours.
BTC price gains over 7% in two days
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD spiking to $27,200 on Bitstamp.
Its highest in several days, the performance reflected gains of around 7.5% versus local lows from the week’s final Wall Street trading session.
“Strong movements on Bitcoin as it swept all the lows in recent moves and grinds back up to $27.2K,” an optimistic Michaël van de Poppe, founder and CEO of trading firm Eight, reacted.
“Patience, as flipping $27.2K is the first serious trigger for continuation upwards. In that case, close to a temporary bottom & potentially new highs to $36-42K still possible.”
Popular trader Daan Crypto Trades noted that there was now potential for a “gap” in CME Bitcoin futures markets to appear at the May 15 open.
“If BTC holds at current prices, it will open up with a CME gap tomorrow. These gaps to tend to get filled, especially during a ranging environment,” he told Twitter followers.
“It's good to note how during strong trends (up and down), these gaps are more likely to be left open.”
Earlier in the weekend, Cointelegraph reported on the general cautious tone being adopted by market participants, with Van de Poppe among those demanding the bullish reclaiming of levels around $27,000 before considering long positions.
In an update on the current state of the Binance order book, meanwhile, monitoring resource Material Indicators noted liquidity moving around, along with bid liquidity at $25,400 thinning by around $17 million.
#FireCharts shows ~$17M was pulled out of the #BTC buy wall and it doesn't appear to have been moved in the order book.
Perhaps it was placed as a conditional limit order that won't appear until price reaches their condition, perhaps they took it off the exchange, or maybe they… pic.twitter.com/p9cTIs1sJU
— Material Indicators (@MI_Algos) May 14, 2023
Bitcoin bulls face tough weekly challenge
Looking toward the weekly close itself, trader and analyst Rekt Capital was less positive on the immediate prospects.
In analysis on the day, he warned that a close at $27,550 or under would place BTC price at risk of further losses.
“Weekly Close below $27550 (black) would likely spell more downside for price after failing to reclaim $28800 as support (orange),” he commented on the weekly chart.
Additional findings argued that Bitcoin was likely not repeating its 2019 recovery so far this year.
Recent downside for #BTC has pretty much confirmed that 2023 is not like 2019$BTC Weekly Close below $27350 would likely fully confirm this.
2. Biden Administration To Impose 30% Tax On Miners, Kennedy Reacts.
The government of Joe Biden has revived its support for imposing a 30% digital asset mining energy (DAME) tax on cryptocurrency miners in an effort to improve the supposedly harmful impacts of the cryptocurrency mining industry on the environment.
It was first mentioned in President Joe Biden’s proposed budget for FY2024, which was released on March 9. The cryptocurrency mining tax suggests gradually imposing a 30% tax charge on the electricity used by bitcoin miners.
The White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) blog article from May 2 has been widely panned since it was released.The blog post claims that bitcoin mining has “negative spillovers” on ecosystems, human well-being, and power infrastructure. Findings suggest that low-income neighborhoods and communities of color face a disproportionate share of the costs associated with pollution from power generation, which in turn drives up the price of energy for everyone.
Using clean power (such as hydropower) for cryptocurrency mining is said to still have an adverse impact on the environment since it may cause other energy consumers to migrate to “dirtier” sources of electricity. This is because the rising cost of all sources of power is a direct result of the growing demand for electricity.
Could Taxation be the Answer to Fund Safety Programs?
Bitcoin’s price dropped below $20,000 after the Department of the Treasury said that an excise tax on power consumption by digital asset miners might diminish mining activity and its accompanying environmental consequences and other problems.The idea was brought back into the limelight when a statement was released by the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) justifying the necessity for the new tax.
To paraphrase CEA, cryptocurrency miners are exempt from compensating for the hardships they cause. Local pollution increases, energy costs rise, and the global climate suffers as a result of rising greenhouse gas emissions; these are the costs.The CEA’s Twitter thread has been widely criticized when it was made public. The proposed tax has been criticized by some, who term it propaganda, while others argue that it will “simply push bitcoin mining to Russia & other countries.”
Robert F, backlashes the plan
Presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. termed President Biden’s plan to impose a 30% tax on cryptocurrency mining a “Bad Idea” in a blunt statement.Robert, who sees cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and its underlying technology as a huge innovation engine, has argued that the United States government is making a mistake by encouraging similar developments in other countries.
Robert F. Kennedy said that although worries about energy usage may be exaggerated, Bitcoin mining uses almost as much energy as the video game industry, but “no one calls for a ban” on the latter.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believes that the story of Bitcoin’s energy and environmental effect is only a “selective pretext to suppress anything that threatens elite power structures.”
The presidential contender said that a diversified environment is a more robust ecosystem. The diversity of a currency ecosystem, rather than relying on a single centralized currency, would make the US economy more robust.In addition, Kennedy connected the dangers of a centralized system to the economy’s vulnerability and current crisis. Robert F. Kennedy made a profound remark in his tweet: “We need Cash and Crypto to ensure freedom.”
