Market picture
Crypto followed equity indices lower on Wednesday evening. Cautious buying is seen in the market on Thursday. The crypto market capitalisation now stands at $1.62 trillion, 1.9% lower than 24 hours ago.
Solana remains one of the most volatile of the leading altcoins, down 4.7%. XRP, down 2.6%, continues to slide, losing nearly 20% in 30 days.
Bitcoin started the week on Thursday morning, getting support from buyers on the way down towards $42K. Technically, we saw a worrying pullback below the 50-day MA, suggesting an increased chance of further declines. We see evidence of the same on the weekly timeframe. After seven weeks of tight sideways trading and a spike higher, a move lower has been implied. This did not materialise last week, but the price is now cruising below the centre of gravity of the last consolidation.
News background
Bitcoin could reach a new high of $125K by the end of 2025, and its price fluctuations will become “more stable”, according to Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel. BTC will reach a new all-time high in late Q3 or early Q4 2024 but will then decline to $40K-$50K. A gradual rise to a new ATH of $120K will then follow in early 2025.
Ethereum developers have successfully implemented the Dencun (Deneb-Cancun) hard fork in the ecosystem’s second test network, Sepolia. On 17 January, the deployment of the upgrade in the Goerli testnet caused the chain to split. The Ethereum team was able to make the necessary changes and complete the hard fork within four hours.
The SEC will approve spot Ethereum ETFs on 23 May, by which time the price of the second cryptocurrency will reach $4,000, Standard Chartered predicts. The bank expects the regulator to follow the same strategy for Ethereum as it did for Bitcoin.
According to The Block, the trading volume of Ethereum options reached a record $20 billion in January. Most of the activity was concentrated on call options with a strike price of $2,500 on 23 February. In other words, a significant portion of traders expect ETH to break above $2500 by the end of the month.
Visa has partnered with Web3 payment infrastructure provider Transak to enable the conversion of cryptocurrencies into fiat money on bank cards. According to Transak, the service is available in more than 145 countries.
