The stock market closes on the weekends, but bitcoin never closes. And that’s probably why you see the industry constantly whipsawed by wild bitcoin price fluctuations.
While you’re enjoying a relaxing weekend, crypto traders elsewhere are busy buying and selling. Since May, the flurry of weekend trading has accounted for 40% of bitcoin’s price gains this year, Bloomberg reported.
The Best Never Rest, and Neither Does Bitcoin?
There are several reasons why this may be happening. David Tawil is the president of crypto hedge fund ProChain Capital.
Tawil says one factor is that antsy crypto traders want to get ahead of the pack by trading on the weekend.
“It’s a little bit of anticipatory or front-running the news cycle by trading up on the weekend. You’re somewhat flying blind in the sense that you don’t know if there will really be an announcement made on Monday morning. But in a packed news cycle like crypto…I don’t think it’s wrong to bet that Monday morning would have a positive development.â€
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Opportunistic Traders Pounce on Weekend Lulls
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mike McGlone believes that savvy traders try to take advantage of weekend lulls to turn a quick profit.
“It is more Asia and those more-sophisticated traders picking time and paths of least resistance to profit. I fully expect the leveraged money professional-types are utilizing all tools to spark moves and profit.â€
Still, others believe that the bitcoin price climbs on the weekends because crypto investors have more time to digest all the news that unfolded during the week. They then use that data to make calculated trades. Bitwise Asset Management CEO Hunter Horsley said:
“The market is, by and large, retail individuals. I think that weekends are a time when those people have more free time to read the week’s news, to chat with friends, to pitch friends on exciting things they heard about during the week.”
Skeptics: Bitcoin’s Volatility is a Major Handicap
Then, there’s the possibility that bitcoin whales are manipulating prices by making large-volume trades on the weekends to shape where they want the market to be on Monday.
Bitcoin’s volatility is a key reason why the crypto industry has garnered outsized media attention and hype. However, its unpredictability is also why skeptics denounce bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as unreliable financial assets.
The Motley Fool’s Sean Williams — a vocal crypto skeptic — says bitcoin will never achieve mass adoption because it’s so volatile. And this makes it toxic for retailers.
“Bitcoin’s volatility is a big reason why most retailers won’t accept it. Even with blockchain-based transactions that can potentially validate and settle faster than payments on traditional banking networks, the lag in settlement times can still allow for wild vacillations in the price of bitcoin.”
Crypto Bulls: Bitcoin Is Not Going Anywhere
Crypto bulls react to naysayers by saying bitcoin is not going anywhere, so they’d better get used to it.
“Bitcoin is more popular than Jesus.”
The bitcoin price is currently hovering at approximately $12,000.