Rises in the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin (BTC) increases 1.5% in the last 24 hours to around $28,300, while Ethereum (ETH) gains more than 1.3% and manages to surpass $1,850.
“The market leader has traded in a very tight range in the last week, barely moving much. Such consolidation, along with lowering volume, could indicate that a sharp move is around the corner,” noted Joe DiPasquale, CEO of BitBull Capital.
According to the expert, the market sentiment “remains positive”, which will allow a “select” group of altcoins to “perform decently” these days “if Bitcoin remains in the current range for longer.” Likewise, DiPasquale believes that a correction toward $25K would not “break the bullish structure, whereas a move to $30K is likely to face resistance.”
The events that will take place this week, which starts at half throttle with the European stock markets closed, could decant the direction taken by digital assets. Firstly, Ethereum’s Shanghai update, due to take place on April 12, could cause significant selling pressure on the price of the market’s main altcoin.
However, there are several analysts who defend a very different opposite thesis. Experts such as Mads Eberhardt, from Saxo Bank, point out that most of the investors with staked Ethereum have a long-term profile, so it is unlikely that they will decide to withdraw their cryptos once the update is completed. On the other hand, a report from CryptoQuant noted that more than half of staked Ethereum is experiencing losses of around 20% of its value.
“Typically, selling pressure arises when market participants are sitting on extreme gains, which is not the case right now for Ethereum, as it has been staked,” the analysts explained.
On the macroeconomic scene, Wednesday will bring the latest U.S. inflation reading, a key data point in determining what could be the next step on the roadmap for a Federal Reserve (Fed) that could soon end its hiking cycle.
“Markets are once again setting their sights on central banks, according to CME’s FedWatch tool, there is a 60% chance that the Fed will hike another 25 basis points. This could be the last move in this hiking cycle, although rates could remain high for longer than expected. Although the evolution of inflation will continue to be the most decisive variable in its upcoming decisions, we will have to be very attentive to employment and consumption data, as well as to the tensions that may occur in the financial sector”, XTB stated.
In the rest of the market, gains were fairly uniform among the altcoins. The rises of more than 1.6% for Dogecoin (DOGE) and 1.4% for solana (SOL) are noteworthy, while Polygon (MATIC) is one of the few large tokens that has not risen on Monday.
