The global financial markets rallied in the past week in anticipation of an ensuing peace deal in Ukraine. But Ukraine defied Russia’s ultimatum to lay down arms and the European Union (EU) is considering a potential energy ban against Russia. This led to a realignment of investors' risk as world stocks fell while oil prices and US treasury yields shot up. Surprisingly though, crypto markets reacted in the opposite as the total market cap increased by 3.5% in the last 24 hours. On the back of a bullish move made by Bitcoin (BTC), the altcoin market also made a rejuvenated comeback. In this article, we look at the recent price actions of Bitcoin, notable altcoins and the outlook for the same.
BTC is trading near $42,200 and continues to face selling pressure at $42,590 indicating the bears have an upper hand at the overhead resistance levels. On the flip side, the bulls are assisting a healthy support near $40,000 region trying to make BTC stay above certain moving averages. The relative strength index (RSI), which is currently near midpoint, will encounter a descending resistance line suggesting a short sell off is on the cards. However, if the bulls manage to break $42,590, then BTC can attempt a move towards $45,400. Here’s an image that depicts the current situation of BTC with two moving averages (20 day SMA and EMA) along with the RSI trend below the price trend.
source: Tradingview, Binance
Ethereum (ETH), the leader in smart contracts, reclaimed the $3,000 psychological level today with a 5% gain partly aided by BTC’s movement. Another major reason for the price surge is attributed to the upcoming network upgrade to Ethereum 2.0 that promises lower gas fees, more burned coins (deflation) and less congestion. The founder of ETH, Vitalik Buterin, has confirmed that the move from proof of work to proof of stake model will happen in Q2 this year. This is likely to drastically reduce energy consumption on the network. If a successful transition happens, ETH is likely to reclaim its all-time-highs in terms of pricing.
Almost all of the top 100 crypto assets, ranked by market capitalization, have registered moderate gains with some of the tokens such as Apecoin (APE), Avalanche (AVAX), Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA) doing fairly well in the past week. APE, native governance token that powers the decentralized community of the APE ecosystem consisting of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), has landed a whopping 1,000% gain in the last week. The interest in the token has peaked after the airdrop to the NFT holders.
AVAX, the token powering the Avalanche blockchain, has surged by 30% this week to trade at $88. The recent price action is expected to have occurred due to the launch of Subnets that lets developers build app specific blockchains under AVAX with custom parameters. SOL and ADA have registered 14% and 17% gains respectively after a prolonged period of accumulation.
BTC, major altcoins and even institutions are attempting to make headway at the start of this week despite the macro economic factors that are weighing down on the global markets currently. One such example being, Goldman Sachs executing its first OTC (over the counter) crypto transaction in collaboration with the trading unit of Michael Novogratz’s crypto firm Galaxy Digital. In the short term, BTC is expected to consolidate between $40,000 and $45,000 with moderate volatility.
According to data from tracker website ultrasound.money, the ETH network has burned over 2 million ETH burned as of today. Since Ethereum shipped its London hardfork in 2021, the total ETH supply has faced deflationary pressure via EIP-1559 protocol. ETH is expected to break away from its accumulation zone (between $2,000 to $3,000) soon.
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Disclaimer: This article was authored by Giottus Crypto Exchange as a part of a paid partnership with The News Minute. Crypto-asset or cryptocurrency investments are subject to market risks such as volatility and have no guaranteed returns. Please do your own research before investing and seek independent legal/financial advice if you are unsure about the investments.