Bitcoin Background

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What factors influence the Bitcoin Price?
1. Government Statements
The main drivers that make Bitcoin price go up and down are the official government statements regarding the Bitcoin adoption and regulation. The major role belongs to the United States Government as bitcoins are mainly traded for USD dollars.

Notes:

United States position about first regulated exchange. After the statement from San-Francisco-based exchange Coinbase about opening a new bitcoin exchange offering storage services which will be approved by a number of US States, including New York and California, Bitcoin value raised significantly. Such step of the government meant a lot for Bitcoin users, as it turned Bitcoin to the next level where there is a place for trustworthiness and insurance of the investments.
Cyprus Banking Crisis. The bitcoin increase in trading value was noted both in 2013 when the Cyprus went through the economic problems and this 2015 year with the news about Cyprus Economic default named ‘Grexit’. Bitcoin, being the digital currency which can function as a currency-fluctuation protector gained popularity due to the region’s economic climate which changed the influx of investments. After the government spread the news that insured deposits can be jeopardized, bitcoin immediately jumped in price. However, some specialists consider that trading volumes of Cyprus constitute just a small part of whole trades, thereby it cannot significantly influences the market price. Others suppose the Bitcoin price movement to be speculative and think that there is no real interest in digital currency among Cyprus citizens.

2. Mass Media
Mass media provides the essential link between the individual and the demands of the technological society.

From this quotation it is easy to guess that Bitcoin price movements can coincide with the events covered by the mass media. News that are published by famous FinTech editions or some statements posted on Twitter by opinion leaders influence the Bitcoin price trends as most people are used to reckon upon the influential people’s and companies’ state of view.

Notes:

The Mt.Gox liquidity problems. When the biggest exchange Mt.Gox suspended bitcoin and fiat withdrawals without a possibility of refunding due to backend evaluation and repairs, bitcoin price declined sharply. The bitcoin value cratered following the mass media announcements. What is more, such event made a knock-on effect on the whole bitcoin industry including other exchanges, thus influenced the bitcoin price in a long-term.
Apple got rid of Bitcoin app. The bitcoin experienced price movements when Apple removed the Bitcoin Application from the App Store - Coinbase Bitcoin wallet “due to unresolved issue’ that allowed for buying, sending and receiving bitcoins. To feel the difference: when the iOS was launched, the Bitcoin buy price was about $200, whereas after the news from mass media about bumping the application, the price was about $420 and still was growing.

3. Demand
The more we use it in everyday life - the broader adoption is going to be. While such merchants as Amazon, Ebay, Google are adopting bitcoins, bitcoin demand is growing, influencing the price growth as a result.

Another influential factors are the selling / buying orders put on the marketplace. Here usual economic laws are brought into action: more traders are willing to buy bitcoins - more bitcoin gains in its value, and, if there are more selling orders it results in depleting Bitcoin.


4. Mining
The mining difficulty as well as a network hash rate indirectly impacts on the Bitcoin Price. Mining is an investment in the hardware which allows for obtaining Bitcoins. Increasing hash rate with the resulted increased network difficulty influence the number of miners: less and less miners are eager to make investments into the hardware as they are not so lucrative as they were used to be. Thereby, they can change the course of their investments from mining to making purchases. Hence, the growing demand can evolve into the price increase.


5. Altcoins
The Altcoins Market also effects a bitcoin price. The emergence of serious altcoins can distract the attention of Bitcoin audience. A lot of investors, traders, users start to use the altcoins which seem to be more serious and prospective in their point of view in comparison to bitcoin. Hereby, we will observe the bitcoin price drop due to the decreasing demand.