The $42 000 USD is becoming an increasingly important battleground for Bitcoin bulls and bears. According to some analysts, this is the level that bitcoin needs to break through in order to resume its rapid upward trajectory. Meanwhile, analysts at Bloomberg also expect bitcoin to break above $100 000 USD in the near future. But when will we get there?!

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The week's top cryptocurrency news in one place

According to a new report by Bloomberg Intelligence, the price of Bitcoin could soon approach $100 000 USD, if historical trends continue. Bloomberg has released the July issue of its "Bloomberg Crypto Outlook", titled Bitcoin Going for the Gold. The report highlights that Bitcoin is essentially digitizing the world, with the asset gaining tangible popularity in recent years. While demand and adoption is growing rapidly, supply is steadily decreasing, leading to an appreciation in price - which Bloomberg analysts predict could soon reach $100 000 USD.

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As Bitcoin gains momentum worldwide, financial regulators are increasing their focus in an attempt to save the crumbling financial system.

It is clear from the recent IMF statements that they are not so keen on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. They may see digital assets as a threat, especially if people start using them as national currencies. A good example of this is the case of El Salvador, where the IMF refused to support the implementation of a project because of 'transparency gaps'.

Cryptocurrency regulation around the world

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Cryptocurrency regulatory news from several countries this week.

A senator from Uruguay has submitted a groundbreaking draft legislation to his government. The main purpose of the regulation is to "ensure the legal, legitimate and safe use of cryptocurrencies by companies that produce and trade them." It could become the third South American country after Uruguay, El Salvador and Paraguay to formalise the regulation of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

The Spanish legislature is considering a proposal to allow long-term home loans to be paid in crypto coins. The proposal is included in the so-called Digital Transformation Bill, which also includes several other bills promoting the spread of crypto, blockchain and artificial intelligence technologies.

In South Korea, several cryptocurrency platforms are shutting down their operations because they are running their businesses without the necessary licenses. 11 mid-sized cryptocurrency platforms are set to shut down as the country's financial watchdog, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), has found that they are operating without the necessary licenses. It is expected that the largest crypto exchanges in the country, such as Bithumb, UPbit, Coinone and Korbit, will be able to continue operating without disruption.

After a breakout, can the $100 000 USD price level be reached?

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Willy Woo, one of the most active analysts of network data, has now taken a look at the resistance at 42 thousand dollars.

The analyst based his bullish analogy on the so-called Rick Astley indicator, a heat map that tracks investors - the Rick Astleys of the world - who buy bitcoin to hold the asset for a longer period of time.

[Woo created the indicator based on British pop artist Rick Astley's 1980 hit song "Never Gonna Give You Up".]

The indicator has previously been very good at predicting bitcoin price rises based on investor buying below certain technical resistance levels.

Woo also noted now that strong-handed long-term investors soak up almost the entire bitcoin supply when the price is below $40 000 USD.

Bitcoin's upside breakout attempts so far have been limited, as so far breakouts around $40 000 USD - $42 000 USD have failed in a row. Specifically, the BTC/USD exchange rate has made at least ten attempts to close above that range after the crypto crash on 19 May.

Woo's upside projections are supported by the tightening supply. This is a situation where the available supply of bitcoin falls below the immediate market demand, resulting in higher and higher bids to buy appearing in the market.

Using Woo's own Liquid Supply Shock indicator, he concludes that the markets are now out of bitcoin. This graph shows that there are fewer and fewer coins available for traders to buy on trading platforms. Woo calculates the supply shock by dividing the coins held by strong-handed investors by the coins held by speculative investors.

His results show that coins quickly disappear from the available market as strong-handed holders continue to lock them up for long-term investment.

If Willy Woo is indeed right, Bloomberg's $100 000 USD bitcoin prediction may even underestimate the future price. A six-fold increase in the current exchange rate could push the cryptocurrency's price to between $180 000 USD and $250 000 USD. If and when the analyst's calculations come true.

Altcoin news

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On Thursday, the London hard fork went live on the Ethereum blockchain at block 12965000, the next major development package on the network after the Berlin hard fork in April 2021. Several improvements have been proposed for the network, including changes to the blockchain pricing model and improvements to the mining system.

The second quarter of 2021 has seen a huge boost for Ethereum-based DeFi projects. From April to June, the volume of Ethereum addresses increased by 10% and the number of users using DeFi protocols jumped by 65%.

Riccardo Spagni, co-founder of Monero, was arrested in the US. Authorities have charged him with corporate fraud. Initially, there were rumours within the Monero community that the charges were trumped up as a result of governments' crackdown on cryptocurrency. However, the case has nothing to do with the well-known cryptocurrency, as it dates back to 2009, when Spagni worked with a South African company, Cape Cookies.

Bitcoin SV blockchain has been hit again with a 51% attack. More than a dozen blocks were successfully "rearranged" by the attackers, who were able to take control for three hours. Although the attack was stopped, the hackers were still able to cause plenty of problems. Surprisingly, the Bitcoin SV price did not react too negatively to the news of the attack, although this is the umpteenth such incident, so investors may be used to the risk.

Miami this week launched its own cryptocurrency, MiamiCoin, which allows people to invest in the city itself by supporting projects and events. In principle, Miami will be the first city to issue its own 'city' cryptocurrency in partnership with CityCoins.

Nearly half a million dollars in ETH transaction costs have been lost by unlucky users due to an NFT generation craze. The NFT art project, called COVIDPunks, generated such a huge amount of uniquely identified avatars that the transaction costs on the network went from $5.80 USD before the action to $33 USD during the action.

The UN has found a solution for its climate change programme in non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. The organisation has named the new project Digital Art for Climate Action Empowerment, or DigitalArt4Climate, which will incorporate the work of young artists into NFT art to inspire people to do more to protect the environment.