Crypto exchanges have always enjoyed a symbiotic existence with major cryptocurrencies, especially of Bitcoin. Through exchanges, customers can trade digital currencies for other assets like fiat or other digital currencies.
BitcoinMarket.com, the first crypto exchange, started its operation on March 17, 2010. From then on, one crypto exchange has emerged after another. According to CoinGecko, there were about 391 cryptocurrency exchanges for spot trading and 33 for derivatives at present.
Recently, major exchanges were involved in a series of controversies leaving the interest of their investors hanging on a thread. From Kucoin’s security breach, BitMex faced lawsuits of racketeering and illegal activities to the most recent OKex incident suspending all its cryptocurrency withdrawals. In their statement, one of their private key holder was “out of touch”, hence they implemented the temporary withdrawal on their platform.
Will these affect the prices of cryptocurrencies most especially of Bitcoin? With Kucoin’s security breach, the price of Bitcoin remained unfazed at $10,700. But it’s a different story after the BitMex issue. Bitcoin’s price immediately dropped by 4.11%, from $10,883 it went down to $10,437. And what about the OKex most recent incident? Bitcoin took a sharp dive and dropped by 3% just 30 minutes after the exchange implemented a temporary suspension of its crypto withdrawals.
There may be some factors that influence the reaction of Bitcoin prices with these controversies. Despite all of these, Bitcoin has remained bullish. According to Boyapati, recovery will likely happen. His statement came after the Bitmex issue.
“The Bitcoin market has always reacted negatively to major exchange issues or government confiscation. Historically this has always presented a great buying opportunity for Bitcoin. The Department of Justice’s action against BitMex will be no different.”
Though we have seen the price of Bitcoin dropped, it has also immediately rebounded with its 10,500 base support as leverage. Even the case of OKex trading incident will have very little effect on the price of Bitcoin. This is according to Vishal Shah, an options trader and founder of Polychain Capital-backed derivatives exchange Alpha5.
As of writing, the current price of Bitcoin is now at $12,192. The price remains volatile following an up and down pattern. But the price has definitely recovered and has made an 8.9% whopping increase from $11,190 after the OKex controversy. As of to date, the OKex withdrawal is still suspended but the incident bears no significance anymore on the price of the Bitcoin.
Whether Bitcoin will remain bullish and reach the predicted price of $20,000 this year is something we all have to look forward to. Are we going to see the Bitcoin bullish this year or will it be bearish? All eyes are now on Bitcoin since the prices of other cryptocurrencies also depend on it. A bullish Bitcoin would also mean a bullish crypto market.
