With Bitcoin’s price still in the negative as we enter 2023, there are a few developments in Bitcoin to keep an eye on this week. The first week of January is rather quiet in terms of macro BTC price triggers since there is just a week before the United States Consumer Price Index (CPI) print for December.
Even if the Federal Reserve’s rate raise pace has been slowing, the central bank has not yet signaled that it would reverse course. When such signs start coming in, risk-taking should become a lot more popular.
Bitcoin Hash Rate
As 2023 starts, Bitcoin’s foundational community is carrying on as normal. Miners continue to feel pressure over BTC price performance, since the forthcoming difficulty adjustment on January 3 will wipe away profits achieved two weeks previously.
According to BTC.com, mining difficulty is expected to decrease by 3.52% this week after increasing by 3.27% on December 19. This means that new all-time highs will not be secured.
However, statistics gathered in the latter half of December painted a bleak picture for the typical network member, with the hash rate (an indication of total processing power allocated to mining) falling to its lowest levels of the year.
Bitcoin’s Supply
Since Bitcoin’s volatility has been nonexistent for weeks, holders have no reason to sell. The most up-to-date on-chain data seems to back that up, showing that the BTC supply has been going dormant as speculators have stopped buying Bitcoin.
Data from Glassnode, an on-chain analytics company, reveals that the quantity of supply stagnant in its wallet over the previous five to seven years has reached an all-time high in January of this year.
Indicative of a lack of impulsive speculative trade, the short-term volume of coins in circulation has been declining as the supply has aged.
According to Glassnode, the quantity of Bitcoin supply is at a five-year low compared to when it was last active three to six months ago. Three- to five-year-old supply activity has dwindled to a level not seen in a year.
As this is being written, one Bitcoin is valued at $16,743, with a 24-hour trading volume of $11.3 billion. In the 4-hour time period, Bitcoin is finding strong support around $16,460, where an outside trend line is extending support.
The direction of Bitcoin’s price is dependent on whether or not it can break out of its current trading range. With a successful break over $16,990, Bitcoin’s price might go to the next resistance level at $17,100.
Source: https://coinpedia.org/bitcoin/heres-what-can-bitcoin-traders-expect-from-btc-price-this-week/