The crypto market opened on Monday hushed as investors took a step back, awaiting the sector’s heightened regulatory crackdowns to cool down.
At press time, Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, was trading at $24,621 after surging 1.28% in the past 24 hours: Ethereum, the No 2. Cryptocurrency by market cap also showed frailness and was trading at $1,712, up 1.30% in the past day. On the other hand, Layer 1s like XRP, Polkadot and BNB had added 0.56%, 2.02% and 1.12%, respectively, at the time of reporting.
Solana led in gains and traded at $26.12 at press time after surging over 11% in the Asian trading session. The spike came after Solana developers announced that the Helium network would migrate from its current L1 to Solana at the end of March. The migration is expected to bring nearly 1 million helium hotspots worldwide to the Solana ecosystem.
Last week, Bitcoin pushed past $25,000 on the back of news that Hong Kong was warming up to crypto. According to sources familiar with the matter, Hong Kong will officially make crypto trading fully legal for its citizens, which could drive a huge influx of money to pour there.
Notably, reports that the two largest creditors of the defunct crypto exchange Mt Gox, Bitcoinica and MtGox Investment Funds (MGIF), had chosen to be compensated 90% of their payout in Bitcoin has also played a role in keeping the crypto asset’s price buoyed.
Peter Brandt, a veteran market analyst and trader, suggested that Bitcoin could set up a big bull run in the current phase. In a tweet, the pundit referred to Bitcoin’s current setup as a “price wall”, adding that such structures “typically represent MAJOR turning points”
Recently, crypto sleuth “Ali” shared data from IntoTheBlock, showing that Bitcoin has built a vital support barrier between $21,700 and $23,700, where 1.60 million addresses bought over 1.32 million BTC in the past week. According to Ali, “If this demand wall can hold BTC, notice that the next key resistance sits at $27,000.”
Adam Back, CEO of blockchain technology company Blockstream, said he would not short Bitcoin at current prices, noting that the FTX-induced contagion has been flushed out. He further noted that Bitcoin could tap $250,000 by 2024 if the next 14 months looked like the period between March 2020 to April 2021 when prices rose sharply from around $4k to $64K. “But it’s also a halving year, so perhaps more,” he added.
