Bitcoin price holds strong amid negative news blitz, says CoinShares report

Blockchain headlines have been awash with negative news tidbits lately. KuCoin suffered a major hack on Sept. 26; two United States regulatory bodies went after BitMEX on Oct. 1; the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA, banned crypto derivatives on Oct. 6; and news came to light that U.S. stimulus payment talks had stalled around Oct 9.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price has appeared largely unfazed, however, despite this array of seemingly unfavorable stories. This could be indicative of upside potential in the coming weeks, according to a report Monday from crypto investment solution company CoinShares. 

“It tells me holders are not nervous and leverage is low — a theory supported by wallet activity and traffic — and skews my short term price expectations from neutral to positive,” wrote Danny Masters, executive chairman of CoinShares. 

In the days following each of these events, Bitcoin’s price mostly held, dropping only slightly in comparison with its usual price activity, and often rising shortly thereafter.

“In my 30 years in trading my top golden rule was to act when the news was not matched by price movement,” Masters wrote. “Having been around crypto during MtGox, the China ban, Bitfinex Hack, Trump comments and many of the other market-smashing stories that punctuate bitcoin’s history I was struck by the lack of negative price movement, particularly around BitMEX,” Masters added after noting the FCA and BitMEX events as recent, potentially bearish happenings. 

Bitcoin has gained a number of large mainstream participants in the past several months, partly in an effort to preserve these speculators’ capital against inflation. Masters details these mainstream entrants in the first part of the report, mentioning Square and MicroStrategy as two examples. MicroStrategy allocated $425 million of its treasury reserves to Bitcoin between August and September. Square picked up roughly $50 million in Bitcoin at the beginning of October.

“We think these actions are but the beginning of a treasury diversification strategy which will appeal to technology and payments companies around the globe,” Masters wrote.

Earlier in the year, billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones placed his own heavy bet on Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation.