Cryptocurrencies gained on the wave of Jerome Powell's comments and the double-dip of the previous 25bp US rate hike. Although the Fed is far from declaring victory over inflation, and Powell hinted at a possible return of inflation if the central bank does 'too little,' markets particularly liked the comments regarding the 'global disinflation' process that has begun. As a result, the largest cryptocurrency is struggling to rise near its summer 2022 highs.
- Bitcoin soared above $24,000 but was quickly knocked off these levels by supply and is now struggling to return to levels near the summer 2022 peaks. The strongest gainers are again altcoins including Binancecoin, Algorand, Sushi and Avalanche;
- The volume of the cryptocurrency market rose by nearly 30% yesterday on a daily basis, to about $61 billion. The capitalization of the entire market is now around $1.1 trillion;
- Meta Platforms' successful report supported sentiment on U.S. index contracts primarily the NASDAQ, with which Bitcoin correlates;
- Wall Street is approaching a key day of earnings season, with today's post-session shows from Apple, Alphabet and Amazon likely to affect volatility and investor activity in the evening hours in the cryptocurrency market as well;
- If positive sentiment continues traders may increase speculative exposure around Elon Musk's 'favorite cryptocurrency,' Dogecoin in view of recent comments by Tesla's CEO, who suggested integrating Twitter with both traditional finance and cryptocurrencies.
The sudden surge of interest in Bitcoin in 2023 caused a massive increase in the average daily number of transactions on the network. Their number has grown exponentially from less than 200,000 to nearly 350,000 in a month, the largest increase in the history of a major cryptocurrency. Source: Ycharts
Bitcoin chart, H4 interval. The largest cryptocurrency remains above the SMA200 (red band) and SMA100 (black band), which is also the lower limit of the upward formation. Bitcoin has also reached the vicinity of the summer 2022 maxima, although this is the second time it has been pushed back by supply from levels above $24,000. The 50 SMA average (blue band) is approaching the cross with the SMA200, which in the past has most often heralded a prolonged price rebound, and has also crossed the SMA100 for the first time in nearly 10 months, which was a resistance even during summer of 2022. Source: xStation5
