Good morning. Here is what happens:
Prices: Bitcoin fell below $27,000 for the second day in a row. Investors are in wait-and-see mode.
Knowledge: Bitcoin is taking a breather even amid slightly bullish jobs and price data this month.
Bitcoin sinks below $27,000 again
For a second day in a row, bitcoin fell to levels below $27,000 in late March, but remained safely within its multi-week range as investors shrugged off upbeat employment and price data and the last banking crisis to continue to wait for a real price catalyst.
The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was recently trading at around $27,052, down 1.8% in the past 24 hours. BTC changed hands between $25,000 and $30,000 throughout the spring. A number of analysts believe it will linger there, unless there is a compelling reason for it to push higher – or lower.
"The price reaction to macro data hasn't been as strong over the past few weeks," Katie Talati, head of research at blockchain asset management firm Arca, told CoinDesk TV. "I think most of the time, like with stocks, everyone feels like a lot of macro moves are being priced in. Much of what we've seen in the last 24 hours, though, is a lot more attributable to things specific to the digital asset space.
Ether was recently trading at around $1,800, down around 1.9% from Wednesday, the same time. The second-largest crypto by market value has also remained largely constrained in recent weeks, despite Ethereum Shanghai's successful upgrade in early April, which completed the blockchain's transition from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-proof protocol. participation more energy efficient.
The Pepecoin-inspired meme mania was waning less than a week after hitting a stunning market cap of $1.8 billion. Data from crypto intelligence firm Nansen showed that as of late Thursday morning (ET), “smart money” wallets – the crypto accounts of individual traders or institutions known for their profitable moves – had reduced their PEPE reserve of 3 million dollars in the last 24 hours. .
Talati said the team behind PEPE “did a really good job of marketing the token, really building a lot of hype around it.”
But she added, “These tokens tend to pop up and gain notoriety when there isn't as much happening in this space. They are usually the most accessible. A lot of new entrants to crypto like to trade them.”
Other major cryptos were largely in the red. The CoinDesk Market Index, a measure of crypto market performance, fell 2.4%.
Stocks were mixed with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and S&P 500 down slightly, but the tech-heavy Nasdaq up a fraction of a percentage point. The banking sector declined after Los Angeles-based PacWest Bancorp announced it had lost more than 9% of its deposits last week. But PacWest's latest troubles seemed like an afterthought for crypto investors.
Meanwhile, Talati d'Arca was optimistic about DeFi. "There's definitely a lot going on in DeFi," she said. "I've highlighted in the last few weeks a lot of development on some projects like Curve and Aave, both of which have launched or (are launching) their own stablecoin."
Bitcoin is taking a bit of a 'breath' in May as investors reflect on a mini-wave of bullish jobs and price data, says Alex McDougall, CEO of Stablecorp, in a CoinDesk TV interview on Thursday.
The price of bitcoin fell nearly $31,000 less than two weeks ago, and on Wednesday fell below $27,000 after markets were spooked by an unfounded rumor that the US government was going to sell off. some $320 million in bitcoins. The largest crypto by market value has been rocked in recent weeks, in short a compelling reason to jump from a multi-week range.
"We've seen interest rates fluctuate quite a bit," said McDougall, whose company provides blockchain-based financial products. “And the decoupling of risk on the tech stock narrative is interesting. Anytime there are so many competing narratives at the same time, you can almost see the market flip between the narratives. Is that doomsday hedging? Is this your risky asset? Is the banking sector dying?
He added "What it looks like is a deep breathing opportunity – a lot of people taking profits that have been underwater for a little while, an accumulation opportunity."
McDougall noted that congestion caused by the meme pool on the bitcoin network, which prompted exchange giant Binance to suspend withdrawals twice over the weekend, had raised concerns about the ability of the network. blockchain to handle the additional volume generated by NFT-like ordinals. There are "known challenges, and scalability is always part of that trilemma," he said. "When these start to raise their heads, it's easy to kind of say 'we're a little too hyped up there. .'"
He said liquidity remains another issue the crypto industry needs to address. "It wasn't a healthy market, but at least we had this kind of global liquidity connectivity before," he said. "And you're starting to see this divide and that global assets can't move so easily across borders, and these liquidity caps are starting to disconnect a bit."
But he was optimistic about bitcoin's future. "A lot of these things are sort of natural growing pains," he said, adding, "How could you not be optimistic? It's so obvious to go for this technology long term, but the way forward is not going to be straight."
Bitcoin (BTC) slipped below $27,500 following the release of April PPI data. Katie Talati, Head of Research at Arca, shared her analysis of the crypto markets. Additionally, Timothy Massad, a fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and former CFTC Chairman, discussed the future of U.S. crypto regulation following a joint House hearing on the future of digital assets on Wednesday. And Dogecoin's first backer, Gary Lachance, discussed the rise of the meme economy.
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