Bitcoin rallied to a new all-time high against the US dollar on three occasions last week as bullish sentiment around the number one cryptoasset continued.
The first occasion, last Tuesday, was short lived, as once bitcoin touched $69,200 large sell orders and liquidations on crypto exchanges caused the price to fall over 10% in a matter of hours to a low of $59,500, writes Simon Peters, cryptoasset market analyst at multi-asset investment platform eToro.
The bitcoin spot ETFs came to the rescue however, seeing over $10 billion in volume last Tuesday, a new daily record as institutional investors saw an opportunity to buy the dip.
This record buying propelled the bitcoin price up 15% within 24 hours and back to the $67,000 mark. Subsequently the bitcoin price carried on its uptrend over the days that followed, making highs of $70,180 and $72,910 respectively (the current all-time high at time of writing).
With the spot ETFs continuing to acquire bitcoin in significant quantities, as well as other parties such as Microstrategy Inc adding further too, demand for bitcoin is fast outstripping new supply.
We are now in a price discovery phase on bitcoin. Are there sellers to match buyers, and at what price level will they sell?
Where the price goes from here is anyone’s guess, but it certainly is an exciting time to be an investor or holder of bitcoin.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Dencun upgrade to go live on Ethereum mainnet on Wednesday
The long awaited Dencun upgrade is set to go live on the Ethereum mainnet on Wednesday (blockchain slot 8626176 to be precise).
Dencun introduces a number of EIPs (Ethereum Improvement Proposals) and marks the start of ‘The Surge’ era on Ethereum, aimed at increasing the scalability, security and efficiency of the network. The upgrade is also set to significantly reduce transaction (gas) fees on layer 2 networks within the Ethereum ecosystem through EIP 4844 Proto-Danksharding.
Ethereum will be a crypto to watch over the coming months. Dencun could bring increased usage of the Ethereum (and layer 2) networks, which in turn could be positive for ethereum and layer 2 cryptoasset prices.
Ethereum is currently trading at $3,994 according to Yahoo Finance, the highest price since December 2021, 22% away from the $4,870 all-time high.
US CPI data being released on Tuesday
On the macro side, today will see the latest US CPI (Consumer Price Index) figures, which are a key measure of inflation, being released.
Although the Federal Reserve has pretty much ruled out a cut to interest rates at this month’s FOMC meeting, a CPI print lower than forecast could increase the probabilities of a cut happening at the following meeting in May.
As we’ve seen historically, increased probabilities of cuts to interest rates has generally been positive for cryptoasset prices, as well as stocks.
A CPI print higher than forecast could stall the current crypto rally, or furthermore cause a small retracement in cryptoasset prices.
LAST WEEK’S MOVERS
FLOKI was one of the best performing cryptoassets last week, up 85% following a number of positive announcements – that the cryptoasset is now available to trade on one of Singapore’s largest crypto exchanges and that Floki will be “taking over the heart of New York” with an aggressive marketing campaign in Times Square starting March 15th.
Other memecoins such as SHIB (Shiba-Inu) and PEPE continued to outperform larger cryptoassets finishing the week up 50% and 45% respectively.
EYE-CATCHING STORIES
Deutsche Börse launches regulated crypto trading platform for institutions clients
Deutsche Börse has launched DBDX (Deutsche Börse Digital Exchange), a regulated crypto spot platform for institutional clients.
As outlined in the press release from Deutsche Börse “DBDX offers a fully regulated and secure ecosystem for trading, settlement and custody of crypto assets that leverages the existing connectivity to market participants.”
“The offering fills a gap in the market and positions Deutsche Börse at the center of the growing institutional market for digital assets, while providing clients with a comprehensive suite of innovative and secure financial solutions for digital assets from a single point of access and across the value chain” the press release continued.
