ETH asserts itself
What's being bought and sold*
TOP TRENDING ASSETS
*Trading activity in the past 24 hours on the Uphold platform, as of 8 a.m. 26th February 2024.
The combined total of buy and sell percentages can exceed 100% due to customers who engage in both buying and selling the same asset within the 24-hour time frame.
Don’t invest in crypto unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong.
What’s up
Ethereum Dominance On The Rise
Ethereum is dominant to start the backstretch of an elongated February. Bitcoin, on the other hand, has gone limp, amidst a menagerie of market forces, many of them macro and positive. Technical signals don't look as promising, though.
For the past week, BTC trudged in place, holding on to $51K (barely). The most gigantic digital asset shed 2% since last Monday.
ETH, meanwhile, has gained 5% in the past week, helping to boost its overall share of the total crypto market from 16.9% to 17.7% while BTC's dominance level tumbled below 50%. Various ecosystem milestones aside, the ETH run has been all about an ETF narrative that, if it holds true, would unlock the door to a giant rave club in a refurbished spacecraft hangar.
ETH discovered but relinquished the $3K spot at least a few times last week. However, as of Friday, the second-largest crypto appears bent on asserting squatter's rights.
In a harbinger of a potential further rally, "whale accumulation" increased while ETH’s price crossed $3K, AMBCrypto said.
What's down
Bitcoin Faffs About; Traders Fret
Total crypto assets ($2.09T) are slightly off compared to roughly 12 hours ago. Some traders are worried about Bitcoin crumpling.
BTC drifting below $51K, near the “bottom of the consolidation range of the last eight days,” spells trouble, said Alex Kuptsikevich, FxPro senior market analyst.
“Without a bounce from here, we could see a deeper correction begin," Kuptsikevich told CoinDesk.
He predicted the potential, near-term, worst-case BTC spot market low would be in the neighborhood of $48K.
What's next
In Search Of Planetary Staying Power, Flagship Crypto Looks To Stick Landing
The same week that a lunar craft touched down on the moon but then tipped sideways, crypto assets topped $2.11 trillion (as of Sunday night) ... while standard-bearer Bitcoin produced a roughly zero percent return across seven trifling days.
That BTC even can hover above a crater-pocked ridge (of between $50.9K and $51.9K) must seem like sheer lunacy to economists at the European Central Bank. Late last week, Jürgen Schaafa and Ulrich Bindseil, a pair of ECB market structure/payments officials, co-wrote a blog post titled: “ETF Approval for Bitcoin – the Naked Emperor’s New Clothes.”
Essentially, the pair argues, BTC has such limited usage that this inherently disqualifies it as a righteous form of coinage.
On the flip side, Dan Morehead, CEO, Pantera Capital, a crypto hedge fund, predicts “a strong bull market” for crypto over the next 18-24 months (Bitcoin.com).
Morehead cites a confluence of happenings, including the SEC blessing spot BTC ETFs and the coming BTC halving, as well as a resurgent stock market, with this latter dynamic giving institutions a little more latitude to assure themselves that crypto's emperor isn't walking around naked.
"We believe the convergence of these positive things will provide strong tailwinds,” the Pantera honcho told clients in a recent investment letter.
(Incidentally, Warren Buffett's annual letter to shareholders came out the other day, revealing the Oracle of Omaha is sitting on $167.6 billion in cash, a record, prompting a new Wall Street parlor game, "What's Buffett Buying?")
Regarding bull times for crypto rolling onward, the Pantera founder added: “This is a pivotal moment – the removal of traumatic occurrences in the capital markets and blockchain space from the past couple years – coupled with positive things like the halving and regulatory clarity.”
In August, Morehead pegged BTC's post-halving high at nearly $150K.
