(Kitco News) – Bitcoin’s (BTC) price dipped below $65,000 in early trading on Wednesday as the crypto market continues to adjust to the reduction of Bitcoin emissions following the halving on Friday, and looks for the next catalyst to excite traders and get prices rising again.
Investors are also preoccupied with earnings season in the stock market, with Tesla seeing its share price spike 12% in early trading after the EV maker vowed to speed up the launch of more affordable models and teased a strategy shift to robotaxis.
Tesla was the first of the “Magnificent Seven” to report earnings. Meta’s (META) earnings report is due after the market close, and Microsoft and Alphabet will report on Thursday.
Data provided by TradingView shows that after climbing above $67,000 in the early hours on Wednesday, Bitcoin bears took over the price action and have dropped the top crypto to support at $65,000, which is near the middle of the range it has been trading in since late February.
BTC/USD Chart by TradingView
Past halvings were followed by a notable pullback in Bitcoin price before it ultimately went on a parabolic run, so a slide into the $50,000 range wouldn’t be out of the ordinary in the current market.
“The BTC price fluctuations post-halving are milder than some might have expected, but it makes sense, given that the market had largely priced in the upcoming spike in BTC back in March 2024,” said Evgeny Filichkin, Investment Advisor at neobank Keytom. “The anticipation hype and notable events like the launch of Bitcoin ETFs played their part in driving the rate upwards. As a result, the initial post-event reaction had already been accounted for, resulting in only a moderate price movement.”
Filichkin said the longer-term effects on Bitcoin’s supply, demand, and price are still accumulating.
“Historical data from previous halvings suggest that the full impact of these events on Bitcoin’s price unfolds over the course of several months to a year,” he added. “The halving often provokes speculative trading cycles, with investors initially driving up prices in anticipation of tight supply, potentially leading to short-term bubbles followed by corrections.”
“This time, as well, the newly reduced rate of Bitcoin mining can be expected to lead to sustained higher valuations in the long term as the supply of coins becomes more limited,” Filichkin said. “From a strategic standpoint, I anticipate that Bitcoin will achieve a valuation of $100K within the next six months, with a more immediate target of $80K within three months.”
As for the selling pressure that occurred in the lead-up to the halving and the aftermath, Philip Forte, founder and CEO of Elixir, told Kitco Crypto “There was a bit of market trepidation heading into the Bitcoin halving with significant sell pressure likely coming from Binance moving its insurance fund into stablecoins.”
“However, the market sentiment has seemingly recovered three days after the halving block on April 20th,” he said.
“Bitcoin mining stocks have risen significantly in the last few sessions with strong producers like Cleanspark ($CLSK) demonstrating the ability to double production post-halving,” Forte added. “Other digital asset-related stocks such as Microstrategy and Coinbase also corroborate broader market confidence.”
“We are still early in the evolution of the Bitcoin ecosystem and its participants as miners jockey for an increasingly scarce asset while competing for fees, Bitcoiners grapple with network congestion and Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs), and scaling solutions like Bitcoin L2s and cross-chain liquidity layers trying to tap into the largest digital asset class and make it productive like Ethereum and Solana,” Forte concluded.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $65,055, a decrease of 2.4% on the 24-hour chart.
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