Market update
The two-week bear market is now just a memory, with Bitcoin up 5.5% on last Tuesday to trade above A$73,400 (US$56,850). But it’s Ether that’s been attracting all the attention, up by 12.4% in the past day and more than a third since last week to trade at A$4,360 (US$3,375) at the time of writing. Ether prices have quadrupled this year and appreciated roughly twice as fast as Bitcoin. Everything else was up substantially: Ripple (10.4%), Polkadot (8.2%), Litecoin (16.9%), Bitcoin Cash (19.3%), Chainlink (18.8%), Stellar (12.5%), EOS (17.1%) — which is on the verge of being flipped by AAVE (26.3%) — and Synthetix (14%). Bitcoin dominance has fallen to 46.4% (in the last bull market dominance fell all the way to 32%). The Fear and Greed Index has recovered from 27 (fear) last week to 61 (greed) today.
Bitcoin has been on a wild ride this week falling from almost A$73K to below A$61K, before staging a 13.5% recovery in the past 24 hours. BTC finishes the week down 5.1% and is trading at A$68,800 at the time of writing. Ethereum meanwhile broke into new all-time highs around A$3,386 on April 22 and finished the week up 13.6% at A$3,233. It’s up 50% against BTC in the past month and there’s much speculation it’s poised for an even bigger move — Real Vision CEO Raoul Pal is thinking of selling all his BTC for ETH. Bitcoin’s rocky ride saw a wider pullback with XRP down 4.4%, Polkadot (-8.4%), Litecoin (-9.4%), Bitcoin Cash (-10.1%), Chainlink (-7.4%), Stellar (-7.4%) and Synthetix (-4.4%). Most altcoins are substantially in the green today however and Aave finishes the week up 10.3%.
Bull runs don’t always see the price rise smoothly upwards, and we saw a brutal 16.6% drop in the price on the weekend liquidating around US$10B of positions. Bitcoin finishes the week 7.2% down to trade around A$72,500. Pullbacks of between 20-40% are common during bull markets historically speaking. Despite the fall, many coins are up this week including Litecoin (5.8%), Bitcoin Cash (31.5%), Chainlink (7.1%), EOS (1.7%). Ethereum was flat while others lost ground including Ripple (-5%), Polkadot (-14.5%), Stellar (-12.8%) AAVE (-14%), Synthetix (-18.6%). The Fear and Greed index is at 74, or ‘greed’. Monthly adjusted on chain volume for Bitcoin hit a record US$366.27 billion in March, up 14.7% from the previous ATH in February.
Another historic week for Bitcoin kicks off with the leading cryptocurrency again within sight of breaking the all-time high of A$80,924, set on March 13. It’s currently up 1.8% for the week to trade at just over A$79,000, with Bitcoin dominance at 53.9%. Bitcoin was again the best performing institutional grade asset of the first quarter, gaining 103%, followed by oil which was up 26%. Gold meanwhile lost 10%. Ethereum has just ploughed into a new all time high of A$2,885 and finishes the week up 1.4% at A$2,820. Court victories saw Ripple rediscover its mojo, up 59.3%, Litecoin increased 12.3%, Chainlink (3%), Stellar (10.8%) and Bitcoin Cash (8.8%). Aave was flat, Polkadot fell by 8.1%, EOS dropped 4.6% and SNX lost 5.4%.
March has historically been a terrible month for Bitcoin, but not this year with the price increasing by almost a third. Bitcoin is up 2.9% on a week ago to trade just under A$77,000. However, Bitcoin dominance has fallen from 72% at the turn of the year to 55.7% today. The reason is that altcoins have gone nuts: in the past two months, the number of crypto unicorns has doubled. There are now 100 projects with a market cap above US$1 billion. Ethereum has broken into new highs and is currently up 17.8% to trade around A$2,760. Everything else saw double-figure percentage increases with Polkadot up 33.6%, XRP/Ripple (61.5%), Litecoin (14.8%), LINK (16.2%), Stellar (30.7%), Bitcoin Cash (26.7%), EOS (58.5%), AAVE (11.2%) and Synthetix (19.8%).
After taking a tumble to the A$67,000 mark on Friday following the expiration of a record $6B in options contracts, Bitcoin has recovered to trade above A$75,000. It finishes the week up 5.4%. Ethereum was up even more (6.5%) on this time last week after Visa announced it was settling some transactions on the network. Litecoin was up 3.1%, Stellar (1.6%) Aave (3.5%) and EOS (3.2%). Ripple, Chainlink, and Bitcoin Cash were all flat, Polkadot lost 4.3% and Synthetix lost 3.3%. Analyst Filbfilb, co-founder of Decentrader, believes alt season has arrived, pointing to Bitcoin dominance falling below 60%, the lowest point since October 2020. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index is at 72 or Greed.
Bitcoin was trading as high as A$77,000 earlier this week, but took a tumble over the past couple of days and is currently trading around $71K. That’s 3.1% down on seven days ago. Ethereum lost 5.7%, Litecoin dropped 6.9%, BCH (-2.5%), AAVE (-6.6%) and SNX (-3.8%). However, Polkadot increased 3.4%, XRP/Ripple was up a whopping 27.2% amid a new push to get it relisted on exchanges, LINK was flat and Stellar was up 4%. Sentiment has eased and the Fear and Greed Index is currently at 70, or Greed.
Bitcoin was closing in on the A$80,000 mark over the weekend before it fell almost ten grand on Monday and another three grand today. Various theories have been advanced for the correction: the usual weekend retail shenanigans, conflicting reports over the severity of a crypto ban in India, incorrect reports of $1.3B in BTC being deposited on Gemini. At the time of writing, we have ended about flat from a week ago at A$70k. Bitcoin futures open interest hit a record US$29B a few days ago suggesting bulls expect the uptrend to continue. Elsewhere it was a mixed bag: Ethereum and EOS were flat, Polkadot was up 1%, along with Litecoin (4%) and Bitcoin Cash (0.3%). Chainlink lost 10%, Stellar (-6.1%), AAVE (-11.5%) and Synthetix (-10.8%).
Bitcoin has just seen its second-best weekly close ever, according to Cointelegraph. BTC is currently up 5.7% on seven days ago and is trading just under AU$68,000. That’s only around 12% from the most recent record high. Ethereum surged by 17.7% this week as news of an important protocol upgrade emerged, XRP (Ripple) was up 7%, Chainlink (16.4%), Litecoin (10%), Bitcoin Cash (6.5%), Aave (15.4%) and SNX (6.9%). Meanwhile, Polkadot lost 1.1% and Stellar was down 1%. The Fear and Greed Index is currently at 81, which is Extreme Greed.
Volatility on traditional markets was mirrored in crypto this week, with Bitcoin seeing what CoinDesk described as its “most tumultuous weekly performance” since the March 2020 crash. After falling below A$56K on the weekend, Bitcoin has rebounded 10.1% in the past 24 hours to trade just under A$64,500. Analysts have tied the rebound to a recovery in shares and the return of the Coinbase premium, which indicates buying interest in the US. BTC is still down 8.6% down on this time last week. Although markets are now heading in the right direction, everything is down on seven days ago including ETH (-12.5%), DOT (-4.4%), XRP (-22.1%), LTC (-14.9%), LINK (-12.1%), Stellar (-6.8%), BCH (-20.1%), AAVE (-7%). EOS (-21.2%) and SNX (-1.1%).
After trading above $73K on Monday, traders appear to have grown nervous that valuations were flying a little too close to the sun with Bitcoin suddenly plunging around 15%, liquidating $5B in leveraged positions this morning. Various pundits blamed Elon Musk who said on the weekend that BTC and ETH prices “do seem high” or US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen who once again criticised BTC as “inefficient” and used for criminal activity. The Bitcoin price is still up 13.4% to trade just above $68,350. Ethereum traded above $2,500 for the first time this week but has fallen back to $2,250 which is where it was this time last week. Polkadot surged 35.9%, Ripple was up 3.6% and AAVE was flat, but everything else was down on seven days ago: Litecoin (-1.2%), Bitcoin Cash (-9.7%), LINK (-3.7%), Stellar (-5.3%) and Synthetix (-15.6%)
Bitcoin has been hitting new all-time highs this week and edged close to the US$50K mark ($A64.25K) before taking a tumble yesterday. There was much talk of a “dip” however Cryptowatch reports BTC has just closed its biggest-ever weekly green candle. It’s currently up 8.2% on a week ago to be trading around $62,500 at the time of writing. The BTC market cap also crossed the US$900B mark for the first time and it’s already at $1.15 trillion in AUD. Ethereum finishes the week up 5.7% to $2330. That means 1 ETH is worth the same as one ounce of gold ($2346) for the first time. XRP was up 26%, Litecoin gained 29.6%, Bitcoin Cash (52.9%), Chainlink (32%), Stellar (28.8%), EOS (36.2%), SNX (16.4%). AAVE fell by 4.6%. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index hit 95 this week, it’s currently 93 (extreme greed).