DOLLAR INDEX : Coronavirus sows doubt over bitcoin’s rally after third ‘halving’

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

As bitcoin investors brace for a long-awaited technical adjustment that will halve new supply of the cryptocurrency, the coronavirus pandemic has cast uncertainty over the expected rally that has historically accompanied such events.

This “halving,” the third in bitcoin’s 11-year history, has been widely flagged. The previous events fueled huge surges in bitcoin’s market value, but there is a wildcard this time in the form of the coronavirus pandemic, some analysts said.

“From an efficient market perspective, any fundamental reaction to the halving should be heavily priced in at this point,” said Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital. “After all, it’s hard to imagine a more predictable event than an unalterable supply reduction that has been scheduled for more than a decade in a liquid, heavily-traded … asset.”

Bitcoin relies on “mining” computers that validate blocks of…