Decentral Block Post

Bitcoin (BTC) is done with its bear market, but the coming months may see a return to $20,000.

That is the outlook for Philip Swift, a veteran Bitcoin market analyst who co-founded trading suite DecenTrader and data resource Look Into Bitcoin.

In his latest interview with Cointelegraph, Swift takes a look at what the near to long-term future holds for BTC price action.

After predicting the end of the bear market at the end of 2022, Swift is sticking by his appraisal of underlying price strength, while staying cautious on the odds of a deeper correction than last week’s 10% dip.

Bulls face many obstacles on the road to new all-time highs, he said, with government policy particularly troubling when it comes to potential price suppression.

Last week, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) reached a record high in Argentine peso (ARS) terms following persistent inflation in Argentina.

Argentina’s inflation pushes BTC’s price to all-time high

On April 18, the BTC-to-ARS exchange rate crossed over 6.59 million ARS, according to aggregated price data tracked by Google Finance.

Since the peak, the rate has corrected to around 6 million ARS, down 9%, but still up more than 100% year-to-date (YTD).

Bitcoin’s growth in the Argentine markets coincides with the continuous ARS devaluation. For instance, traders were paying as low as 460 ARS to buy $1 from the black market on April 24 — more than double the official spot rate that pays 220 ARS for the dollar. 

FMyA, a United States-based consultancy firm, noted that the Argentine central bank’s reserves have dropped by half to an estimated $1.3 billion since 2019.

Unlike restricted proof-of-work (PoW) blockchains like Bitcoin, the Polkadot blockchain allows cross-blockchain transfers of any asset or data, facilitates more transactions per second and needs less infrastructure.

Polkadot uses a nominated proof-of-stake (NPoS) blockchain centered on interoperability of parachains that connect to and are secured by the Relay Chain. Validators can validate both the Relay Chain and the parachains, making it a flexible and scalable blockchain solution.

The native token on the Polkadot blockchain is named DOT (DOT). It can be used on the Polkadot network for trading, staking, bonding, paying transaction fees and voting in network governance.

This article highlights what Polkadot staking is, how it works, how to stake DOT, its requirements and rewards, and why tokenholders should stake DOT.

What is Polkadot staking and how it works

Founded in 2016 as a layer-0 protocol and multichain network, Polkadot is a blockchain project introduced by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood.

Bitcoin (BTC) is keeping everyone on their toes when it comes to price trajectory — where will it go next?

BTC price down 10% after bad week 

After a week in which BTC/USD fell by 10%, sentiment is getting a reset and traders are eyeing key support levels closer to $25,000.

At the same time, consensus is far from unanimous over market health — some believe that the next phase of upside is around the corner.

As macro markets gear up for a new period of crucial data and moves from the United States Federal Reserve, volatility catalysts are waiting in the wings, with Bitcoin potentially not staying calm for long.

Cointelegraph takes a look at the upcoming scenarios that could cause BTC/USD to quit its short-term sideways trading pattern.