Bitcoin
And other cryptocurrencies were sliding on Tuesday, continuing to recapture gains after the last rally that saw the digital asset soar to record highs in 2023. Traders should wait for further weakness or a sharp rise before a rebound.
Over the past 24 hours, the price of bitcoin has fallen less than 1 percent to $29,850. The biggest digital asset crossed the crucial $30,000 mark last week – psychologically, it’s where prices stopped in June 2022, before the sell-off in cryptos escalated into a brutal bear market. Bitcoin, some 80% this year, failed to strengthen above $30,000, let alone the recent peak to $31,000, and there are signs that some traders are taking profits at these high levels.
Katie Stockton, managing partner of Fairlead Strategies’ technical research team, said: “Bitcoin’s current weakness is causing a bearish trend on our short-term indicators, supporting a deep pullback in the coming days.” “Support for Bitcoin is defined by early resistance, near $25,200. This is a natural place to pull back… We look for a long-term resistance test area to weakness, around $35,900.”
Cryptos can remain sensitive to macroeconomic forces in addition to trends in the stock market and fluctuations in the market.
Dow Jones Industrial Average
And
S&P 500
Digital assets have become closely tied to stocks amid decades of high inflation and dramatic increases in interest rates from the Federal Reserve. Higher rates dampen investors’ risk appetite, damaging both asset classes.
The rally in cryptos this year has largely come from expectations that the Fed will become more accommodative on monetary policy—a narrative that will continue to change ahead of the central bank’s next decision on May 3. Market this week, there will also be economic data and comments from central bank officials that could move cryptos.
Advertisement – Scroll to continue.
With the trigger ahead, traders should note the short-term weakness highlighted by Fairlead Stockton—but there’s also a serious technical issue for inflation next month. It has to do with the striking similarities between 2022’s selloff and 2018’s price volatility, when the last Bitcoin bull market turned to the downside, explained Vettel Lund, an analyst at crypto research group K33.
Both price cycles have similar durations from peak to trough, Lund said, with market bottoms lasting the same amount of time and seeing similar recovery paths and bear market rallies.
“Although no one should expect a one-to-one comparison of the current picture to the previous controversies, the similarities with the 2018 release are striking,” Lund said. “If history repeats itself, Bitcoin will top $45,000 around May 20.
Beyond Bitcoin,
Ether
It rose less than 1 percent to $2,100. The second largest crypto recently performed better after a major upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain network that makes “staking” – the process by which token holders earn interest – more straightforward. Along with both, smaller cryptos or altcoins were also floating.
Cardano
And
Polygon
Less than 1% of Memecoins were weak with both.
Dogecoin
And
Shiba Innu
Advertisement – Scroll to continue.
Less than 1% leakage.
Write to Jack Denton at jack.denton@barrons.com
Comments