Crypto market is witnessing a mix this Friday morning as Bitcoin (BTC) slipped 3% below $24,000 in 24 hours. Other popular altcoins including Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Solana (SOL), Ripple (XRP) and Litecoin (LTC) are trading in a mix with marginal gains and losses. Render Token (RNDR), FXS & APT tokens saw the biggest loss of all, falling more than 11 per cent in the last 24 hours. The global crypto market cap at the time of writing is $1.08 trillion, down 3.13% in 24 hours.
Bitcoin (BTC) price hit a new high in 2023 at $25,000. The milestone comes after Bitcoin price surged for much of January. The last time Bitcoin’s price was around $25,000 was in mid-June 2022. Bitcoin’s price surge has wiped out the expectation of an option expiration below $21,500 on Feb. 17, so your bets are unlikely to pay as the deadline nears. The main concern for Bitcoin investors is the possibility of further regulatory impact and the crackdown on the issuance of stablecoin Binance USD (BUSD). Even if the news flow remains negative, bulls can still benefit from options expiry on Friday, February 17 by keeping the BTC price above $22,500, but the situation can easily turn in the bears’ favour.
Ether has formed a technical death cross pattern against Bitcoin for the first time since May 2022, hinting at more pain for ETH/BTC in the coming weeks. ETH/BTC’s recent death cross could lead to a similar selloff in the near future, largely due to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s crackdown on Crypto staking services. Staking is a key feature of many blockchains, including Ethereum. Meanwhile, flows to and from Bitcoin and Ethereum-based funds also show BTC gaining ground. Interestingly, Bitcoin-based mutual funds attracted $183 million in 2023, compared to Ethereum’s $15 million. The asset has seen a steady decline in exchange supply over the past six months following the merger. The amount of ETH available on exchanges continues to drop, according to on-chain data. Since the Merge, there is 37% less ETH on exchanges.
On the macro front, BTC price surged more than 12% on Feb. 15, marking its highest daily close in over six months. Interestingly, the move came as gold touched a 40-day low of $1,826, suggesting a potential change in investors’ risk sentiment for crypto assets. The Feb. 14 inflation report showed consumer prices up 5.6% year-on-year, followed by data showing resilient consumer demand, prompting traders to reconsider Bitcoin’s rarity value. US Retail sales rose 3% in January, the fastest gain in nearly two years.
Technical Outlook:
Bitcoin:
BITCOIN after giving a breakout above the range ($16,000 to $17,500) witnessed a rally and the prices made the weekly high of $25,122. However, the asset faced strong resistance around $25,200 (Previous Top, High of August 15) and witnessed a sharp profit booking and dropped to $23,339. The resistance at $25,200 will be a major hurdle for bulls. Once the price breaks and sustains above these levels then we can expect it to further rally up to $28,500. BTC has a strong support zone from $21,500 to $20,500.
ETH:
ETH after giving a breakout above the long-held resistance of $1,250 surged up to $1,741. The asset faced a strong resistance of around $1,700-$1,750 (Horizontal Trendline) and witnessed some profit booking and dropped to $1,631. The asset has been taking good support at $1,500 (200 Day Moving Average) in the past. If it holds and sustains above the support, then we can expect some up-move. Whereas a break below this level will lead to further downfall. To further rally, ETH needs to break, close and sustain above $1,750. Once it does that then we can expect the price to surge up to $2k levels.
BNB:
BNB after making the low of $220 started moving in an uptrend and rallied up to $337.8. The asset faced strong resistance at $336 (Horizontal Trendline) and witnessed a correction and the prices made the weekly low of $282.8. However, it didn’t give a daily close below its 200 Day Moving Average. BNB has a strong support zone from $280-$300 (Horizontal Trendline). If it breaks the support then it may further drop to $250 levels. To witness a rally BNB needs to break, close and sustain above $336.
Weekly Snapshot:
| USD ($) | 09 Feb 23 | 16 Feb 23 | Previous Week | Current Week | |||
| Close | Close | % Change | High | Low | High | Low | |
| BTC | $21,819 | $23,623 | 8.27% | $23,678 | $21,754 | $25,134 | $21,460 |
| ETH | $1,546 | $1,640 | 6.08% | $1,704 | $1,324 | $1,733 | $1,470 |
| BNB | $305.96 | $304.76 | -0.39% | $337.32 | $303.02 | $325.60 | $283.70 |
| Crypto | 1w – % Vol. Change (Global) |
| BitCoin (BTC) | 7.31% |
| Ethereum (ETH) | 10.87% |
| Binance Coin (BNB) | 17.39% |
| Resistance 2 | $28,500 | $2,000 | $1.50 | $380 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resistance 1 | $25,000 | $1,750 | $1.30 | $336 |
| USD | BTC | ETH | Matic | BNB |
| Support 1 | $21,500 | $1,500 | $1.05 | $300 |
| Support 2 | $17,500 | $1,250 | $0.75 | $255 |
Market Updates
- El Salvador is expanding its Bitcoin strategy in a new partnership with the government of Texas. The intergovernmental collaboration aims to set up a Bitcoin Embassy, or El Salvador’s representative office, in Texas to work on new joint projects.
- The long-awaited scaling upgrade from Ethereum layer-2 solution provider Polygon has been announced, with the beta launch of its zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) main net slated for March 27.
- Only days after reports of United States regulatory scrutiny of Paxos and Binance USD Crypto exchange Binance has minted nearly $50 million worth of TrueUSD (TUSD).
- Sending Labs, a new startup focused on decentralised communication protocols, has secured $12.5M in seed funding to launch the Web3 communications stack.
