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The Bitcoin network continues to show solid fundamentals, with a new imminent record. Mining difficulty is set to increase by 2.5% today, surpassing 50 trillion for the first time in its history. This increase is also accompanied by a rise in the hash rate, reaching record levels. Miners also increased their holdings of BTC, keeping more of their earnings rather than selling them. At the same time, long-term hodlers continue to accumulate Bitcoin, reducing the supply available on the market. The number of Bitcoin wallets with a non-zero address has also reached a new record, exceeding 47 million. These indicators underline the confidence of miners and long-term investors in Bitcoin’s long-term value.

The price of bitcoin has been trading in an increasingly narrow consolidation channel over the past week. Bitcoin saw a drop below the $27,000 mark during the day’s trading in Asia, leading to a general decline in major cryptocurrencies as financial market traders reacted to poor inflation numbers in the UK. The UK’s Consumer Prices Index core inflation rate came in at 6.8%, beating expectations and reaching its highest level since 1992

It wasn’t the regulations around cryptocurrencies that got the ink flowing this week, but rather a controversy regarding Ledger’s cold hardware wallet. A controversial new feature has been added to all Ledger hardware wallet devices. This announcement caused quite a stir in the crypto communities yesterday.

If there’s one topic that’s been getting a lot of attention in recent days, it’s the significant increase in transaction fees on the bitcoin network. What’s behind this sudden trend? The answer lies in a number of parallel elements that have created a perfect storm over the past few days. So let’s start by looking deeper into this topic.

After bitcoin’s spectacular rise in the first few months of 2023, it was certain that a profit-taking was bound to happen sooner or later. As we often like to point out, not all speculators trade the same timeframe! It is this type of pullback that we seem to have witnessed over the past weekend, with tokens moving from the impatient to the more patient. However, the bullish picture remains to this day intact.

In our most recent communication, we were just hours away from the Shanghai update of the Ethereum network. Recall that the latter allows investors with staked tokens on the proof-of-stake chain to withdraw their assets. This upgrade was completed without any technical problems and most importantly, without massive selling pressure leading to a price drop.

Bitcoin broke through the technical resistance we’ve been writing about for a few letters this week, crossing the $30,000 mark. The mother of all cryptocurrencies is thus trading at a level not seen in ten months. More importantly, bitcoin is painting a clear picture of a bullish push following the smashing of the 200-week moving average.

Despite all the regulatory tumult surrounding many cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States, the market has continued to do well over the past week. While bitcoin is trading virtually at the same level as when we last reported, it’s Ether that has enjoyed a significant boost.