Bitcoin and other top cryptocurrencies started the week on a positive note, with BTC gaining more than 5% on Monday and being up 0.5% so far today.
Bitcoin Price August 2019
After a week of a steady downtrend in value for bitcoin, the price of BTC saw a favorable increase on Aug. 19. The price of the leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization jumped over 5% in the span of hours, in part due to a shift in market sentiment.
Bitcoin has been on a lazy decline over the last month and a half, after closing on a 2019 relative high of $13,100 in late June.
Bitcoin's price over the last month | Source CryptoCompare
July brought about negative price sentiment towards bitcoin and crytoassets with the regulatory firestorm aimed towards Facebook’s digital currency libra. The price of BTC suffered in the fallout, as regulatory concerns bled over into market uncertainty.
More recently, reports have tied the $3 billion, 70,000 BTC Chinese ponzi scheme Plus Token to the falling price for bitcoin, as the scam artists allegedly continue to dump crypto in regular batches.
However, the market took a turn for BTC on Aug. 19, with the cryptocurrency’s ‘Fear & Greed Index’ showing crypto sentiment pointing solidly towards fear. As the indicator’s website notes “extreme fear” is a sign investors are too worried, and oculd bei nterpreted as a buying singal.
Fear & Greed Index for cryptocurrency
The index is a multifactorial gauge of market sentiment and has been used to judge broad trends in investor emotion. While bitcoin’s price may have wavered over the last month, multiple analysts are beginning to label the currency as an alternative asset to gold. With an economic recession and global trade concerns looming on the horizon, interest in BTC could continue to grow in the second half of 2019.
