--- title: "Lifting the Offer: Week of April 6th, 2015" description: Released every Monday, itBit's Lifting the Offer offers market data, macro analysis and price outlooks to prepare bitcoin investors for the week ahead. image: https://insights.paxos.com/hubfs/_itBit_LTO/Lifting_the_Offer_-_Week_of_4.6.2015.png --- [![itBit](https://insights.paxos.com/hubfs/itBit-Careers-Square.svg)](https://www.itbit.com/) [![itBit](https://insights.paxos.com/hubfs/itBit-Careers-Long.svg)](https://www.itbit.com/) [OPEN TRADING ACCOUNT](https://exchange.itbit.com/signup) [SUPPORT](https://www.itbit.com/contactus) [LOGIN](https://exchange.itbit.com/login) - [Exchange](https://www.itbit.com/exchange) - [OTC Trading](https://www.itbit.com/otc) - [Market Data](https://exchange.itbit.com/markets) - [Blog](https://www.itbit.com/blog) - [Exchange](https://www.itbit.com/exchange) - [OTC Trading](https://www.itbit.com/otc) - [Market Data](https://exchange.itbit.com/markets) - [Blog](https://www.itbit.com/blog) # [ITBIT TRADING BLOG](https://www.itbit.com/blog) ## Lifting the Offer: Week of April 6th, 2015 April 6, 2015 at 3:30 PM | [Bobby Cho](https://insights.paxos.com/blog/author/bobby-cho) ![Lifting_the_Offer_-_Week_of_4.6.2015](https://insights.paxos.com/hubfs/_itBit_LTO/Lifting_the_Offer_-_Week_of_4.6.2015.png)   Lifting the Offer is [itBit](https://www.itbit.com)'s weekly primer for bitcoin investors. Released every Monday, Lifting the Offer provides key market data, macro analysis and price outlooks to prepare you for the week ahead. ![Tradeblock_-_Week_of_04.06.2015](https://insights.paxos.com/hs-fs/hubfs/_itBit_LTO/Tradeblock_-_Week_of_04.06.2015.png?width=849&name=Tradeblock_-_Week_of_04.06.2015.png) *Source: [Tradeblock.com](https://tradeblock.com/markets/itbt/xbt-usd/) * ### **Bitcoin by the Numbers** **![Price-and-Market-Cap-Week-of-04.06.2015](https://insights.paxos.com/hs-fs/hubfs/_itBit_LTO/Price-and-Market-Cap-Week-of-04.06.2015.png?width=862&name=Price-and-Market-Cap-Week-of-04.06.2015.png)** ### **Best Bits from Last Week** - [Inquiry of Silk Road Website Spurred Agents’ Own Illegal Acts, Officials Say](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/nyregion/silk-road-case-federal-agents-charges.html?_r=1) - [Overstock Invests $5 Million in Peernova in First Bitcoin Investment](http://www.coindesk.com/overstock-venture-capital-investment-bitcoin-peernova/) - [$1 Million Legal Fight Ensnares Ripple, Bitstamp and Jed McCaleb](http://www.coindesk.com/bitstamp-court-1-million-dispute-ripple-jed-mccaleb/) - [Factom Raises $140k in First Day of 'Software Sale'](http://www.coindesk.com/factom-raises-140k-in-first-day-of-software-sale/) - [Big Investor Involvement Could Boost Bitcoin](http://www.wsj.com/articles/big-investor-involvement-could-boost-bitcoin-1428259814) ### **The Macro View** Regardless of intra-day price movements, Bitcoin is growing. A rise in fundamental Bitcoin adoption metrics such as exchange-traded volume, number of outstanding wallets and number of nodes in the network serve as good indicative signals of Bitcoin’s growth. However, the best Bitcoin network measuring stick is the average amount of data (transactions) being broadcast over the network within each block. Before jumping into the numbers, it’s important to understand how the approximate data size of a block is calculated in megabytes (MB). In short, block sizes are determined by the number of inputs and outputs (or transactions) within each block. Getting technical, the exact formula is:  “\[(x\*148) + (y\*34)\] + 10 +/- x”. “X” represents the number of inputs and is multiplied by the number of bytes for each input (148). “Y” represents the number of outputs and is multiplied by the number of bytes for each output (34). “10” is the default number of bytes for each block header. As the graph below shows, the average block size has increased dramatically each year since the first block was recorded in 2009. Over the last year alone, the average block size contains 55% more data: | ![Growth-in-average-block-size-2009-2015](https://insights.paxos.com/hs-fs/hubfs/_itBit_LTO/Growth-in-average-block-size-2009-2015.png?width=630&name=Growth-in-average-block-size-2009-2015.png) | | --- | | *Source: [Blockchain.info](http://www.blockchain.info)* | The growth in average block size reflects the significant increase in activity traveling on and across the Bitcoin network in each block and helps build the case for the sustainability of the network going forward. The data also reveals the potential limitations of a budding technology as each block has a definitive one MB cap to the amount of data it can house. As the network continues to expand, hitting these “growing pains” should serve as a net positive event as Bitcoin’s core developers are already looking at potential solutions around the one MB ceiling. ### **Bitcoin Price Outlook: Bullish** Over the past week, the market was up 4.89% driven primarily by Easter Sunday momentum. Weekends tend to be quiet from both a price and volume perspective, but Easter Sunday saw a 2.29% increase in the bitcoin price. We can speculate that the positive story that ran in the WSJ on Sunday, [Big Investor Involvement Could Boost Bitcoin](http://www.wsj.com/articles/big-investor-involvement-could-boost-bitcoin-1428259814), was a catalyst to the price jump along with Asian investors getting their week started and buying in the open market. The tight price movements over the past few weeks have created definitive support and resistance levels for the near-term. Traders can look for support at $240 with resistance at $265. Intra-week pricing could intermittently break these levels, but these prices will need to be sustained for traders to feel confident that the market is building new, observable levels. Another key price to watch this week is $250. Over the past four days, the bitcoin price has consistently closed above this level. Should we close below $250 in the coming week, the probability of hitting the previously mentioned support level increases.   ### **This Week in Bitcoin’s (Limited) History** **2013:** [Why VCs Love The Bitcoin Market](http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/05/why-do-vcs-care-about-bitcoin/) **2014:** [Bitcoin Prices Down 10% After Chinese Banks Cut Off Local Exchanges](http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/04/10/bitcoin-prices-down-10-after-chinese-banks-cut-off-local-exchanges/) Comments? Feedback? We’d love to hear it! [Click here](mailto:bcho@itbit.com) to email the author.   *Bobby Cho is the Director of the Institutional Client Group at [itBit](https://www.itbit.com). Previously, Bobby was Vice President of Trading at SecondMarket specializing in trading bitcoin and illiquid asset-backed securities.* [Lifting the Offer Legal Disclaimer](https://insights.paxos.com/hubfs/_itBit_LTO/Lifting_the_Offer_-_Legal.pdf)   ### Bitcoin Trading Research Delivered to your Inbox ### Categories ### Subscribe to itBit Blog **Products** [itBit Exchange](https://www.itbit.com/exchange) [OTC Trading](https://www.itbit.com/otc) [Custody Services](https://www.itbit.com/custody) [Escrow Services](https://www.itbit.com/escrow) **Resources** [Market Data](https://exchange.itbit.com/markets) [Support Center](https://help.paxos.com) [API](https://www.itbit.com/api) [itBit Blog](https://www.itbit.com/blog) [Fees](https://www.itbit.com/fees) **Company** [About itBit](https://www.itbit.com/about-itbit) [Press](https://www.itbit.com/h/press) [Careers](https://www.itbit.com/h/careers) [Customer Support](https://www.itbit.com/contactus) [Legal](https://www.itbit.com/legal) **Crypto Assets** [Bitcoin](https://www.itbit.com/bitcoin) [Ethereum](https://www.itbit.com/ethereum) [Bitcoin Cash](https://www.itbit.com/bitcoincash) [Litecoin](https://www.itbit.com/litecoin) [Stellar Lumens](https://www.itbit.com/stellar-lumens) - [![](https://insights.paxos.com/hs-fs/hubfs/_00_PAXOS/Medium%20Updated.png?width=28&height=28&name=Medium%20Updated.png)](https://medium.com/paxos/itbit/home) - [![](https://insights.paxos.com/hs-fs/file-2672941852-svg/_itBit_Social_Icons/twitter-02.svg)](https://twitter.com/itBit) - [![](https://insights.paxos.com/hs-fs/file-2654911471-svg/_itBit_Social_Icons/linkedin-04.svg)](https://www.linkedin.com/company/itbit-pte-ltd) Copyright © 2020 Paxos Trust Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. NMLS #1766787 Crypto asset trading involves a high degree of risk. The crypto asset market is new and unproven and may not grow. Currently, there is relatively small use of crypto assets in the retail and commercial marketplace in comparison to relatively large use by speculators, thus contributing to price volatility that could adversely affect an investment in crypto assets. In order to participate in the trading of crypto assets, you should be capable of evaluating the merits and risks of the investment and be able to bear the economic risk of losing your entire investment. No material at this site should be considered as an offer by itBit to sell or solicitation by itBit of any offer to buy bitcoin or other crypto assets.