After a major market correction which sent bitcoin price from its all-time high of $2,973 to $2,261, bitcoin price has stabilized at the $2,700 region.
Since the June 14 fall to $2,261, bitcoin price has since recovered and stabilized at $2,730. Since June 18, for nearly a week, bitcoin price maintained its upward momentum and sustained its price in the $2,700 region.
Tone Vays, prominent bitcoin trader and consultant, stated that he foresees a breakout with the activation of the Bitcoin Core development team’s transaction malleability fix Segregated Witness (Segwit) imminent.
Segwit imminent?
Over the past few weeks, bitcoin price has been relatively volatile due to the controversial announcement of Bitmain, the largest bitcoin mining equipment manufacturer and operator of Antpool, to run a hard fork when Segwit activates without a condition such as a guaranteed 2MB hard fork.
Hard fork threat
On June 14, Bitmain released an official blog post entitled “A contingency plan against UASF,” which laid out the company’s plan to force the execution of a hard fork with Segwit activates through a user-activated soft fork (UASF).
“We wish that New York agreement will be developed and carried out well. It is the last hope for Bitcoin to scale unitedly in face of the BIP148 threat. We will try our best to deploy and activate it as soon as possible. If BIP148 activates. then UAHF will be alive on the same day. The UAHF chain will protect the economic transactions that are under risk of reorganization because of UASF,” read Bitmain’s blog post.
Coincidentally, almost immediately after the release of Bitmain’s blog post which the vast majority of the community accepted as a hard fork threat to Segwit supporters, bitcoin price fell amidst uncertainty surrounding chain split.
Two bitcoins expectations
If a hard fork as explained by Bitmain’s blog post is executed, it will undoubtedly be a contentious hard fork that will ultimately lead to two persistent bitcoin blockchains. Due to this uncertainty and a minor market correction, bitcoin price fell.
However, analysts including Vays are optimistic in regard to bitcoin’s recent price trend and are expecting a breakout.
Cointelegraph emphasized in several extensive coverage of bitcoin price that bitcoin’s value has had always bounced back beyond its previous all-time highs and peaks after a major market correction. Based on the current upward momentum, it is possible that the same trend will apply and bitcoin price will hit a new all-time high in the upcoming weeks.