Bitcoin price cycles can be influenced by a number of factors, FOMO and public sentiment is one, and mining profitability and difficulty is another. Two separate Bitcoin data researchers have offered their insights as to why the current BTC market cycle still has a long way to go.<\/p>\n
One measure of the ebbs and flows of Bitcoin markets<\/a> is how miners interact with the network. Mining profitability and difficulty are intertwined so when it no longer becomes profitable to mine new blocks, the hardware is shut down until such a time that the difficulty drops to a point where it becomes profitable again.<\/p>\n Crypto researcher \u2018PlanB\u2019 has charted the past three major market cycles noting these exact points where miners have capitulated and difficulty has bottomed out. These correlate with Bitcoin price peaks and troughs over the past decade.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter each ATH #bitcoin price drops until a lot of miners aren’t profitable. Miners switch off hardware (capitulate), hashrate drops, and difficulty adjusts downwards … until miners become profitable again and difficulty rises. Difficulty bottom (100%) starts a new bull market\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n After each ATH #bitcoin<\/a> price drops until a lot of miners aren't profitable. Miners switch off hardware (capitulate), hashrate drops, and difficulty adjusts downwards .. until miners become profitable again and difficulty rises. Difficulty bottom (100%) starts a new bull market\ud83d\ude80 pic.twitter.com\/IgriE3GkPq<\/a><\/p>\n — PlanB (@100trillionUSD) August 21, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n