Bitcoin (BTC) miners are preparing for another difficulty adjustment this week, as the computational power required to mine new coins reaches its highest level ever.

While bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) remain the top coins, altcoins are still drawing significant interest from institutional investors, argued David Duong, Head of Institutional Research at major crypto exchange Coinbase.

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Bitcoin bulls are licking their lips as they look at various widely followed metrics of on-chain activity. The world’s first cryptocurrency and largest by market capitalization is already up over 40% this year, but that rally could extend in the months ahead if positive on-chain trends continue, assuming macro headwinds as the US Federal Reserve continues to tighten monetary policy don’t get too severe.

Bitcoin bear markets are almost always viewed in a negative light. Net worth evaporates and more recent investors in the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization often find themselves deeply in the red on their initial investment.

Bitcoin’s ferocious January price rally launched much of the market back into profitability for the first-time months. The Bitcoin market’s return to profitability is seen in the resurgence in the price, last at around $23,500, above the so-called “Realized Price”, which is the average BTC price at the time when each BTC token last moved.

This time last week, Bitcoin looked like it might be on the verge of mustering a key short-term bullish breakout. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization had formed a bullish short-term ascending triangle pattern and looked like it was about to break above the key $25,200-400 area, opening the door for a quick run higher towards the next major area of resistance around $28,000.

February is ending, but the 'Alameda Gap' is not.

Short Bitcoin investment products saw an inflow of nearly $10 million last week, according to CoinShares’ latest Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly Report. That took month-to-date flows to $14 million. Meanwhile, over the same time period, long Bitcoin investment products saw an outflow of close to $12 million, taking month-to-date outflows of $16.8 million.

The next Bitcoin halving, where the BTC reward delved out to network validators per block mined will be halved, is coming up in just over one year and this could be a key theme in the Bitcoin market in the coming quarters. That’s because past halvings have consistently had a huge price impact.

Robert Kiyosaki, a world-renowned entrepreneur and author, has revealed that he buys more Bitcoin as he doesn't trust the U.S. dollar, which he termed as "fake."

Bitcoin was last trading lower by over 3.0% on Friday in the low $23,000s, with BTC/USD falling back under its 21DMA for the first time in nearly two weeks in wake of a hotter-than-expected US Core PCE inflation report that raises the risk the US Federal Reserve lifts interest rates to higher levels for longer. MoM and YoY price pressures both unexpectedly rose in January, according to the latest report, to 0.6% and 4.7% respectively.

More interest rate hikes are coming from the US Federal Reserve. At least, that was the takeaway from the recently released minutes of the 1st of February meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) earlier this Wednesday. This could be a major medium-term headwind for crypto.

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian believes that crypto, and Bitcoin in particular, is here to stay despite the recent unfortunate developments in the industry including the collapse of FTX.

As the Bitcoin (BTC) price continues to go sideways just below the $25,000 level, traders are trying to assess whether the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has enough oomph to muster another breakout above key resistance. For the last five days, sell pressure ahead of the August 2022 highs in the low $25,000s has kept a lid on prices.

Bitcoin has tried and failed to break and hold above the $25,000 level now for five out of the last six days. Some technicians think that this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is forming an ascending triangle structure that could proceed an explosion higher towards the next major resistance area around $28,000.