Bitcoin Price and Market Overview
Last week ended dramatically for Bitcoin, as the price fell to the range of $1,800 to $1,850, despite the market's expectation for the price correction on the threshold of SegWit mass inclusion.
Most of the miners ignored the inclusion deadline of the soft fork USAF, which leaves hope for the increased activity right before the deadline for the inclusion of SegWit.
In the worst case scenario, the Blockchain and Bitcoin itself could be divided into two separate chains. However, mining pools have direct connections to each other; this directly affects their income. Since the SegWit2x agreement was signed by the vast majority of mining pools, containing the largest number of mining capacities, the situation, in general, is quite calm. There is no visible panic on the market, only more profitable inputs to long Bitcoin transactions.
By the middle of the week, more than 90 percent of the pool servers have supported the BTC1 protocol, SegWit2x and expressed the hope for the early BIP 91 activation, a modified version of SegWit2x. All of the pool's mining capacities are aimed at both full support of BTC1 and BIP 91 signaling.
Support of BIP 91 from BTCC almost instantly had a positive effect on Bitcoin price, within a few minutes the price jumped from just above $ 2,300 to $ 2,450 and then to $ 2,500.
The proposal activation spotlight on BIP 91 officially took place on Friday night, July 21, when more than 90 percent of the network voted in favor of this decision.
The BIP 91 peculiarity is that it allows the Segregated Witness protocol to be adopted more easily. If BIP 91 is activated before July 31, it will replace the BIP 148 user-activated soft key, as it carries the risk of splitting the Bitcoin network.
Market infrastructure
At the end of last week, the total market capitalization was about $68 mln, and on Friday morning it went up to $91 mln. Nevertheless, the infrastructure has not changed - Bitcoin still holds 47.5 percent of the total capital structure.
Almost 60 percent of all Bitcoin transactions are made in tandem with the USD. As for CNY, EUR, JPY, it is 13.7 percent, 12.5 percent and 9.8 percent respectively.
Until the end of the month, for apparent reasons, the market is significantly risky, especially for small volumes transactions.
The main recommendation is to to calculate your permissible risks before buying or selling.