Photo by André François McKenzie on Unsplash

Bitcoin has fallen week-on-week after further activity slumps. It began last week above $26,000 and saw early week volatility as investors took stock of macroeconomic data. 

But once most of those prints passed with little major surprise (bar the UK’s inflation rate), activity stalled. The price this morning is moving around $25,833 on eToro. Although up over 36% in the past 12 months, activity since June has been uninspiring for bitcoin. 

Ether saw bigger falls of around 2.5%, having begun the week below $1,600 and trading down across the week to now move around $1,560. 

With little in the way of major macro updates this week, there is little to stir the market bar unplanned events. The market is looking for signals to take a direction and has been moving fairly flat for some time now. 

Bitcoin halving 85% complete

One of the biggest milestones in the bitcoin market, the halving, is around 85% complete. At the current pace this puts the halving in around the middle of 2024. The last halving took place in May 2020.

Halving is the process built into Bitcoin by which the reward for mining halves in value after a set amount of blocks are mined. Currently the blockchain rewards 6.25 bitcoin for each successfully mined block, with this set to fall to 3.125 next year.

There are a few different implications for the halving. The reward for mining reduces, forcing miners to be more efficient in their processes. This is likely to stimulate more steps toward renewable energy usage in bitcoin mining in order to tap into cheaper and more sustainable energy resources. 

Halving will also decrease the supply of new tokens which has the potential to promote further scarcity. The price of bitcoin won’t necessarily see immediate changes but there is no doubt that halving does affect the dynamic of the market. 

Ethereum fees hit lowest level of 2023

Fees on the Ethereum network, the native blockchain for ether, have hit a 2023 low. Each transaction is running at around $1.15, much reduced from the sky-high fee levels of 2021 and 2022. 

Lower fees are a signal that the market is struggling and transaction volumes are low, but is a potentially rewarding indicator for forward activity. Lower fees makes running processes cheaper for developers and users, and can act as a positive catalyst to an activity and adoption increase.

This is built into the nature of the blockchain’s economics. Such price signals are designed to stoke or temper demand. Lower fees tell us that activity has been slower, but give us an indication that better levels of engagement are potentially ahead. 

Google expands blockchain push

Google’s cloud computing business Google Cloud has added 11 networks to its BigQuery program, expanding the remit of its blockchain efforts. Additions to BigQuery include Polygon and Polkadot, which now join Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and others. 

The project serves as a major repository for data, currently allowing coders and developers to access mountains of information on blockchains that are open-access but not necessarily easy to dive into individually. 

Google’s positioning in the blockchain space is interesting as it looks to offer services to Web3 and other crypto projects services that might not be immediately obvious or consumer-friendly. It is however encouraging to see such a major player continue to expand and engage with the sector despite volatility in the market in recent times.

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