(Kitco News) - Bullish energy continues to persist in the cryptocurrency market despite Bitcoin’s (BTC) ongoing consolidation below $44,000 as the uptrend in altcoins extended on Wednesday, resulting in Bitcoin dominance falling to 50.1%, its lowest level since early October, just before the start of BTC’s rally from $26,500.
A choppy day of trading in the stock market resulted in little change overall as the major indices continued to trade near record highs while investors grow increasingly confident that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in March.
At the market close, the S&P, Dow, and Nasdaq finished higher, up 0.14%, 0.30%, and 0.16%, respectively. On the year, all three indices are up double digits, with the S&P gaining more than 24%, the Dow up over 13%, and the Nasdaq climbing roughly 44%.
Data provided by TradingView shows that Bitcoin bulls rebuffed an early attempt by bears to drop BTC below $42,200, reversing course in the early hours of Wednesday to drive the price action higher. At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $43,385, an increase of 2.5% on the 24-hour chart.
“January Bitcoin futures prices [were] firmer and not too far below the recent contract high in early U.S. trading Wednesday,” according to Kitco senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff.
“Trading has been choppy and sideways at higher levels for over two weeks,” Wyckoff said. “Bulls need to show fresh power soon to keep alive a price uptrend on the daily bar chart. Bulls still have the overall near-term technical advantage.”
Multiple analysts called for Bitcoin to continue to consolidate for the time being while altcoins continue to trend higher.
“The markets are still consolidating for Bitcoin,” said MN Trading founder Michaël van de Poppe. The majority of “this upward move is probably in, and consolidation is next. Range resistance can be found at $47-50K. Support at $36-39K.”
Poppe said that we are likely seeing a repeat of history “in which the Bitcoin dominance is peaking prior to the Bitcoin halving. That means that the bull market on altcoins has started and Ethereum will take over from here.”
Ether (ETH) price spiked to a high of $2,378 on Wednesday and trades at $2,360 at the time of writing, an increase of 6.2% on the 24-hour chart.
While crypto degens are ecstatic about the rapid rise of numerous tokens in recent weeks, market analyst Rekt Capital provided a helpful bit of insight from someone who has experienced multiple bull market cycles and the fast-rising (and falling) prices that come with them.
“Taking profits on a top-performing Altcoin position so as to build a cash position to utilize on a market-wide pullback could prove to be a very rewarding strategy, should the opportunity present itself,” Rekt Capital said.
Altseason interlude continues
The majority of tokens in the top 200 recorded gains on Wednesday, with 28 coins seeing double-digit gains – a sign that the bull market is indeed having an “altseason” interlude.
Bitcoin SV (BSV) led the gainers with an increase of 47.9%, followed by a gain of 31.4% for Decred (DCR), and an increase of 29.4% for EthereumPoW (ETHW). Moonriver (MOVR) was the biggest loser with a decline of 11.5%, while BakeryToken (BAKE) fell 10.2%, and Sei (SEI) dropped 9.6%.
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.7 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 50.2%.
