(Kitco News) – The cryptocurrency market was in consolidation mode on Wednesday following the Tuesday launch of U.S. spot Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that saw the assets under management for the eight new ETFs hit $106.6 million, according to data provided by Farside Investors.
“Ethereum ETFs performed within the expected range compared to the BTC ETF on day one,” said Pat Doyle, Blockchain Researcher at Amberdata. “We set our estimates by analyzing the market cap of ETH vs BTC. The ETH market cap currently is ~30% that of BTC.”
“A conservative range we would expect ETH to do somewhere around 20-30% of the volume that BTC did on day 1,” he added. “This indeed was where we saw things shake out. Roughly, $1 billion in volume was traded for the ETH ETF compared to $4.5 billion for the BTC ETF on day one.”
The price action for Ether and the broader crypto market suggests that the ETF launches were largely priced in, especially since the Securities and Exchange Commission granted preliminary approval for the ETFs to launch back in May.
Stocks suffered their worst day in months after lackluster earnings reports from Big Tech – including Alphabet and Tesla – stoked concerns that the ‘magnificent seven,’ who have been driving gains in the equities market, may be seeing their momentum wane.
“These reports provide the first glimpse into how megacap companies performed in the second quarter,” said analysts at Secure Digital Markets. “Given that these companies have driven most of this year’s gains, their reports are critical for Wall Street.”
Market watchers now have their sights set on Thursday’s second-quarter GDP print and Friday's release of June PCE inflation, hoping that favorable readings will motivate the Fed to reduce interest rates in September. The CME FedWatch Tool currently puts the odds of a September rate cut at 100%.
At the closing bell, the S&P, Dow, and Nasdaq all finished lower, down 2.31%, 1.25%, and 3.64%, respectively.
Data provided by TradingView shows that an early attempt by Bitcoin (BTC) to break above resistance at $67,000 was rejected by bears, dropping BTC back to support at $66,000.
BTC/USD Chart by TradingView
“Bitcoin bounced back to $66,500 after slipping below $65,500 on Tuesday, but the ongoing pressure from Mt. Gox-related sales is holding back a sustained rally,” said analysts at Secure Digital Markets. “Mt. Gox's holdings decreased by another $500 million this morning, following a $3 billion move yesterday.”
“There's widespread belief that creditors will sell their BTC as soon as they receive it, which is putting downward pressure on Bitcoin's price,” they added. “The market is eagerly waiting for a bullish trigger to break out of the current trading range. Donald Trump’s upcoming speech at the Nashville Conference on July 25th could be that catalyst, especially if he announces plans to use BTC in the national reserves.”
According to market analyst Emperor, $66,000 has emerged as a strong level of support following the recent pullback to $63,500.
“Initially people assumed we [would] Dump from 63.5K but that's where we bought the absolute Bottom of the Dump,” he said. “66K level was broken multiple times and then retested as Support. We will spend considerable time here and Accumulate.”
“67K+ was already Broken so it's established that it's no longer a strong resistance but we need some Positive News to Break it and Establish it as a Support,” he added. “Best Bet right now is to be ready to Buy the levels on Dips you feel comfortable with and Accumulate till September.”
Market analyst Elija Boom doesn’t think Bitcoin traders will have to wait until September as he sees the uptrend resuming in a week, once the Mt. Gox Bitcoin distribution to creditors is complete.
#Bitcoin Bull Flag ?
Within a week, Mt. Gox distribution will over and $BTC pump will resume! pic.twitter.com/efphOR8yCo— Elja (@Eljaboom) July 24, 2024
At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $65,950, an increase of 0.46% on the 24-hour chart.
Mixed day in the altcoin market
Wednesday was a mixed bag of performance in the altcoin market, with a slight majority of tokens in the top 200 recording losses.
Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360
SATS (1000SATS) was the biggest gainer, registering an increase of 16.7%, followed by gains of 12.4% for Jito (JTO) and 11.6% for Flow (FLOW). Mog Coin (MOG) led the losers with a decline of 11.4%, while Convex Finance (CVX) lost 10.5%, and Ethereum Name Service (ENS) fell 8.5%.
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $2.39 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 54.4%.
