Bitcoin (BTC): Can Q3 Volatility & Struggles Overshadow Q4 Performance?

The 2022 third quarter has witnessed massive scrutiny of digital coins, with Bitcoin at the center stage. The world’s leading crypto recently experienced a traction slump because of network developments on blockchains like Cardano (ADA) and Ethereum (ETH).

Nevertheless, Bitcoin remains the top crypto asset by market capitalization by a massive margin. While the token’s price declined again over the past quarter, on-chain data revealed another peculiar pattern.

Old Bitcoin, New Tale

Bitcoin experienced price slides over the past few months due to continued macro pressure. Another massive sell-off emerged last week following the Ethereum Merge launch. Nevertheless, BTC observed a downside volatility trend amidst these events. August’s average 30d volatility declined by 20% from June’s 80%.

The latest Messari report revealed one of the leading effects of reducing volatility in BTC prices. Lower volatility led to lower liquidations within the overall cryptocurrency market.

Meanwhile, August had long liquidations amounting to more than $5 billion – less than 50% of June’s $10.8 billion. Short liquidations remain substantially lower. The metric hovered at around $3.5B in August, lower than June’s $6.6 billion.

A Platform Conundrum

Amidst these shifts, the Bitcoin network saw some transitions within the previous quarter. Similarly, the network’s funded addresses have seen a slowdown. Funded addresses surged only 1.1% in Q3 2022 compared to Q2’s 2.5%.

Furthermore, this metric endured its initial slump in August this year after growing for ten months. Also, the network recorded a 4% decline in daily active addresses to 890,000. Meanwhile, Messari said active wallets regained their baseline activity, following the Q4 2021 cycle peak, alongside prices.

One similar tale for Bitcoin from last quarter was daily transactions massively remained unaltered. The leading crypto maintained more than 250,000 daily transfers within the year. Nevertheless, average transaction fees noted a dip, with the same plummeting by 21% to explore $1.4.

Bitcoin hovered in massive speculation about its future during this publication. The crypto traded beneath $18,900 as sellers dominated from the previous week. Such developments saw Bitcoin losing approximately 7% within the last seven days as the bear market plagued.