July Bitcoin Price Report: Confidence Hits 2016 Highs Amid Halving

Bitcoin prices experienced some notable price fluctuations in July, pushing higher as anticipation surrounding the halving drove bullish sentiment.
In spite of ups and downs over the 30-day period, bitcoin volatility fell significantly in July. By the end of July, 30-day realized volatility had declined to 27%, compared to 30% at the end of June.
Arthur Hayes, CEO of leveraged trading platform BitMEX, said that the decline in this key metric likely had both positive and negative effects on the market.
Hayes told CoinDesk:
“When volatility falls, so does trader interest and that takes the price down with it.”
Indeed, July’s most high-profile news story was ultimately a non-event.
The halving saw a reduction of the network’s miner reward from 25 BTC to 12.5 BTC. This event took place on Saturday, 9th July, when the 420,000th block was mined.
Strong market sentiment
Still, that wasn’t to say there weren’t notable developments in the market’s fundamentals.

This post was published at Coin Desk on August 14, 2016.