Focus
Bitcoin holds above $24k as the banking crisis spreads around the globe
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(Kitco News) - It was a day of consolidation for the cryptocurrency market as many tokens saw their recent gains pared by profit takers while Bitcoin (BTC) traded sideways and managed to hold above support at $24,000.
Things were a little more volatile in the stock market, as the banking crisis that started with Silicon Valley Bank has now gone international, with the stock price of Credit Suisse (CS) plunging by 20% on the day, resulting in the popular meme token Dogecoin (DOGE) having a higher market cap than the multinational bank. At the close of markets in the U.S., the S&P and Dow were in the red, down 0.69% and 0.87%, respectively, while the Nasdaq saw a minimal gain of 0.05%.
Data provided by TradingView shows that Bitcoin price traded in a range between $23,930 and $25,250 on Wednesday, and sits near the middle of that range at $24,400 at the time of writing, representing a slight gain of 0.1% on the 24-hour chart.
BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
Kitco senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff called BTCs retreat below yesterday’s high of $26,514 “a routine corrective pullback after hitting a contract high on Tuesday,” and noted that “April Bitcoin futures prices were lower in early U.S. trading on Wednesday.”
From a macro perspective, “Bulls have the solid near-term technical advantage as a fledgling price uptrend is in place on the daily bar chart,” Wyckoff said, adding that “The path of least resistance for prices is sideways to higher.”
Additional insight into Tuesday’s move was provided by analysts at Eight Global, who observed that BTCs price finally broke out of the range that it has been stuck in for months now, but the joy didn’t last for long as “the tables were turned at the end of the day” when bears “caused the daily candle to be a swing failure,” resulting in a daily close below “the crucial level of around $25,300.”
BTC/USD 1-day chart. Source: Eight Global
“Purely from a technical point and thus the principals of range trading, it is possible to seek for shorts in the region of range high,” the analysts wrote. “When you do that, keep in mind that with the current scenario around macroeconomics, we can see very quick changes in price, so do take that into consideration when calculating your risk.”
For those who are looking for longs, Eight Global recommends patience as it will take time for the market to retrace and consolidate.
“The first area is around $23.5K where you can get interested in positioning yourself for a potential move towards the upside,” they said. “This area is defined with a breaker area.”
BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: Eight Global
“If we are not able to sustain the breaker area for support, the next region to look out for is the area around $22.2K-22.6K,” Eight Global said. “This area would be seen as a classic support resistance flip.”
And as a final recommendation for those looking to open a long position, the analysts said to keep an eye out for a higher high on the BTC chart. “The region that you should be looking out for is the resistance level of around $28.6K."
Red day for the altcoins
It was a red day for the altcoin market as profit-taking resulted in a pullback for the majority of the top 200, with only a handful of tokens managing to post gains on the day.
Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360
The only performance of note was a 24.3% gain for Ribbon Finance (RBN) as the protocol celebrated the launch of its new options platform. Out of the top 200, Filecoin (FIL) had the worst performance on Wednesday as its token price fell 19.26%, followed by an 18.07% decline for Lido DAO (LDO) and a 16.9% decrease for Onyxcoin (XCN).
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.06 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 44.3%.
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