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Bitcoin holds near $24k as the crypto market consolidates
(Kitco News) - It was a sideways day of price action in the cryptocurrency market as Bitcoin (BTC) continues to trade near support at $24,000 while global regulators issued what appeared to be coordinated warnings on the dangers that crypto-assets pose to the global financial system.
Stocks managed to claw their way higher following a streak of losses after the latest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data showed that the U.S. economy grew 2.7%, which was slightly lower than the initial estimate of 2.9%. At the closing bell, the S&P, Dow and Nasdaq all finished in the green, up 0.53%, 0.33%, and 0.72%, respectively.
Data provided by TradingView shows that a Bitcoin rally that began late on Wednesday topped out at $24,600 in the early trading hours on Thursday, at which point bears took over and dropped its price to a daily low of $23,630 before bulls managed to bid it back near the major support level found at $24,000.
BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The early move lower had little effect on the prices of March Bitcoin futures, according to Kitco senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff, who noted that “futures prices are near steady in early U.S. trading on Thursday.”
“This week’s sideways price action, or pause, is normal and not bearish,” Wyckoff said, adding that “Bulls still have the overall near-term technical advantage as a price uptrend is in place on the daily chart.”
Further insight into the sideways price action for Bitcoin was provided by market analyst Rekt Capital, who posted the following chart noting that BTC is currently trading between the 21-day exponential moving average (EMA) and the 50-day EMA.
#BTC is currently sandwiched between two Bull Market EMAs
— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) February 23, 2023
• The 21-week EMA (green)
• The 50-week EMA (blue)
It's likely $BTC will continue to consolidate in between these two Bull Market EMAs for the time being
Breach of the blue EMA resistance -> bullish#Crypto #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/VEsFGvteT1
For now, it looks as though BTC will continue to trade sideways as the crypto market consolidates. As far as today’s GDP print is concerned, Eight Global founder Michaël van de Poppe sees it as a positive sign that signals that a recession has been avoided for the time being and the next stop for Bitcoin is $30,000.
GDP came in lower than expected, but still massively positive at 2.7%.
— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) February 23, 2023
The recession is avoided, for now.
That's a great sign for continuation on the markets.
Bring #Bitcoin to $30K.
Altcoins show resilience
A slight majority of the altcoin market traded in the green on Thursday as recent runners entered consolidation while others took the opportunity to stage double-digit rallies.
Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360
BinaryX (BNX) was the biggest gainer on the day, increasing by 41.69% to trade at $137.68, followed by a 24.45% gain for Audius (AUDIO), which rallied after announcing integration with TikTok, and a 19.1% increase for Stacks (STX).
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.097 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 42.3%.
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