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(Kitco News) - The crypto market was able to overcome the struggles it faced the past two days to push higher in trading on Friday as digital assets have gained new favor with investors looking for an escape hatch from the rapidly deteriorating global banking system.
U.S. equities, on the other hand, fell under pressure, with bank stocks at the center of the decline as the difficulties facing First Republic indicate that the banking concern extends far beyond just the crypto-focused institutions like Silvergate and Silicon Valley Bank, which have been in the headlines in recent weeks. At the close of markets, the S&P, Dow and Nasdaq all finished in the red, down 1.10%, 1.19%, and 0.74%, respectively.
Data from TradingView shows that Bitcoin (BTC) bulls took charge of the price action from the opening candle on Friday, pushing the top crypto to a daily high of $27,180 before it corrected to support at $27,000, marking a 8.2% gain on the 24-hour chart.
BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The morning BTC update from Kitco senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff noted that “April Bitcoin futures prices are higher and hit a contract high in early U.S. trading Friday.”
“Bulls have the solid near-term technical advantage and have gained more power this week as a fledgling price uptrend is in place on the daily bar chart,” Wyckoff said, adding that “More upside is likely in the near term.”
As the top crypto now looks to generate momentum to launch from support at $27,000, market analyst Michaël van de Poppe suggested that as long as BTC can hold above $26,000, it should be able to climb to $28,000 in relatively short order. Otherwise, $25,000 was identified as a good place to place a lowball order for a long.
Chopperino land on #Bitcoin, which means that we'll probably have some sideways structures.
— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) March 17, 2023
Needs to hold $26K. If that holds, $28-30K is next.
If it loses $26K, I'm punting around $25K for some longs.
Relatively easy to understand. pic.twitter.com/2VPLZZ7xOz
Market analyst Rekt Capital also sees the $25,000 level as a key area to watch, suggesting that if it can maintain above this zone through the end of the month, Bitcoin will officially be in a macro uptrend.
First, #BTC needs to confirm a breakout beyond ~$25000 on the Monthly timeframe
— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) March 17, 2023
And then the new macro uptrend will be confirmed
In which case $BTC will then rally to $26000
Then $27000
Then $28000
Then $29000
And so on...#Crypto #Bitcoin
Altcoin season arrives
All but seven tokens in the top 200 were in the green for the day, as the strength of Bitcoin has helped spark an altcoin season for low-cap holders.
Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360
Stacks (STK) put on the best performance of the day, with the top Bitcoin layer-two protocol gaining 29% to trade at $1.16, its highest price since April 2022, followed by a 25.41% increase for RSK Infrastructure Framework (RIF) and a 24.75% gain for Immutable (IMX).
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.14 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 45.4%.
