Bitcoin (BTC) maintained an upward post-Halving trajectory on Monday, adding nearly 3% against the US dollar, though this morning has seen the BTC/USD pair fall back around 1.1%.
At the time of writing, bitcoin was changing hands for $66,064, representing a 4% week-on-week gain.
The Halving represented “a significant milestone for the network” said Matteo Greco, research analyst at Canada-listed fintech group Fineqia International.
The network did see a drop in hash rate, which is a measure of computational power dedicated to the bitcoin network’s security layer, immediately following the Halving.
But Greco noted that “it's common to observe a short-term decrease in the total hash rate as miners adjust their operations… Over time, the hashrate is expected to rebound as miners enhance efficiency and competition intensifies.”
Bitcoin’s hate rate dipped immediately following the Halving – Source: blockchain.com
Moving on from the halving, Greco noted “stagnant demand” for bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the previous week, which may be suppressing spot prices.
“ETFs with BTC as the underlying asset experienced approximately $205 million in outflows during the week, continuing a slightly negative net flow from the previous week,” he noted. “This marks the first instance of two consecutive weeks of net outflows since the launch of BTC ETFs.”
However, overall demand since inception remains high, with about $12.3 billion in net inflows and $226 billion in total trading volume, averaging $3.2 billion per day.
Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency, is up 2.8% week on week as was swapping for $3,165 in early Tuesday trades.
In the broader altcoin space, BNB, Ripple (XRP) and Cardano (ADA) have posted double-digit gains over the past week.
Global cryptocurrency market capitalisation currently stands at $2.43 trillion, with bitcoin dominance at 53.6%.