of The price of Bitcoin It dipped below $70,000 on Monday morning, as volatility increased ahead of this month's much-anticipated block reward halving.
Bitcoin is currently down 1.1% on the day, trading at around $69,565, according to data from CoinGecko, although it remains up almost 4% on the week.
With bitcoin halving on or around April 20, one gauge to track cryptocurrency volatility has jumped in recent days.
Bitcoin's 30-day annualized volatility spiked 63.76% last week, and remained above 60% at the end of the week, according to data from Glassnode — the highest level since August 2022. Averaged over a period of time, higher prices reflect increased price risk over that period.
Late last month, BIM CEO Andy Bromberg told Decrypt that Bitcoin's recent volatility reflected a “crisis of confidence” among traders before the reward halved.
The Bitcoin halving, which takes place every four years, sees half of the reward given by miners to control the distribution of its fixed supply of 21 million. A halving in 2024 will see mining rewards drop from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
Historically, every bitcoin has halved following a rise in the value of the cryptocurrency, which some analysts have warned could be pricey. A recent report from Coinbase, on the other hand, indicated that price rallies in the past have been correlated with broader macro events. The coronavirus pandemic and lockdown, which has led to “the most unusual monetary policy and historically strong fiscal stimulus”.
The 2024 halving is also typical because Bitcoin's price peaked before declining, spurred by the confirmation of multiple US spot bitcoin ETFs in January. As ETFs take bitcoin out of the market and halve the supply of new bitcoin, the result can be a supply crunch—which some analysts cite as a big indicator of a halving.
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