Bitcoin and Ethereum: Have crypto markets hit a wall?
Proactive Investors
Published Mar 21, 2023 19:54
Bitcoin and Ethereum: Have crypto markets hit a wall?
Bitcoin (BTC) hit a zenith just shy of US$28,500 on the BTC/USDT pair yesterday before sellers moved in to take profits.
Today, the pair has retraced back to US$27,500, or about 0.8% throughout the session.
For context, week-on-week gains are still in the double digits, while year-to-date bitcoin is up a stunning 65%, clearly among the best-performing asset classes in 2023.
Bitcoin’s share of the global cryptocurrency markets remains in the upper half of 47%, buoyed by the flight to safe-haven assets – see also the rally on gold – we have witnessed since a crisis in the traditional banking sector laid waste to Silicon Valley Bank earlier this month.
While bitcoin bulls would love to see a move above 30k, an overbought position usually ends up running out of buyers at some point.
A possible scenario sees BTC/USDT finding a range somewhere around 28k to 29k, in similar vein to the ranges seen in January and mid-February.
Bitcoin remains exceptionally strong year to date – Source: currency.com
There are also macro factors to consider in the form of interest rate decisions from the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England this Wednesday and Thursday respectively.
Central bank hawks have taken a back seat recently, due to the ongoing disruption in the financial sector, but they may be encouraged by the European Central Bank’s recent decision to stick to its guns and add another 50bps rate hike to the pile.
If inflation concerns trump financial stability and the hawks take the reins, it could dampen bullish bitcoin spirits to an extent; it’s a waiting game for now.
Ethereum (ETH) peaked at US$1,840 on Sunday evening before chalking up close to 3% of losses yesterday, bringing the ETH/SUDT pair closer to the US$1,720 mark. Some slight gains this morning brought the pair a few basis points higher to US$1,730.
Encouragingly, Binance’s order book shows a strong buy wall at US$1,700, meaning there’s a good chance of ETH/USDT staying above the psychological 17k barrier.
Altcoins underwhelm
As has been the case throughout the safe-haven rally in the past couple of weeks, most of the price action has been relegated to bitcoin.
Meanwhile, altcoins in the top-20 set including Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Litecoin (LTC) have moved to week-on-week losses, albeit only in the low single digits.
Solana (SOL), on the other hand, has managed to stay in the green, adding around 8% in the past seven days, as has Binance’s BNB token.
In terms of overnight risers, EVM-compatible blockchain XDC Network topped the charts by adding over 20%, while lending platform Nexo and centralised exchange Huobi were also seen at the top of the movers list.
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Global cryptocurrency market capitalisation fell 2.7% to US$1.15tn overnight, while total value locked in the decentralised finance (DeFi) space fell 0.4% to US$48.8bn.
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