Bitcoin (BTC) has dropped below $26,000 this week, according to Laurent Kssis, crypto advisor at CEC Capital. With summer getting closer, no obvious catalysts, dealers are not keeping inventories and any large selling order may trigger selling pressure, he said. Despite this, retail demand for bitcoin is likely to remain strong over the coming year ahead of the next halving event, according to a research report from JPMorgan. The bank’s analysts noted that recent increase in retail demand can be partly attributed to the advent of Bitcoin Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens, but the more important boost in strengthening investor interest will be thanks to the approach of the April 2024 halving. Part of bitcoin’s original code, halvings occur every 210,000 blocks, or roughly every four years. At these events, bitcoin mining rewards are cut by 50%, which effectively doubles bitcoin production costs.
The appointment of Richard Teng to oversee Binance’s regional markets outside the U.S. has also positioned the one-time Abu Dhabi regulator as the most likely successor to Changpeng Zhao, who founded the world’s largest crypto exchange in 2017. Teng’s knowledge and experience as a regulator will come to bear in his new role overseeing Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa as the exchange attempts to draw a line under mounting enforcement actions related to conduct during crypto’s early years.