Bitcoin (BTC) successfully broke above US$24,000 for the first time in over five months this morning before heading below the psychological barrier that has been the target for long traders since the start of the year.
The benchmark cryptocurrency responded positively to the Federal Reserve’s 25 basis point interest rate hike, even though it was broadly expected by investors.
Traders evidently cashed out their gains, leading to a bit of a correction, though the BTC/USDT pair appears to be in a strong position.
Bitcoin (BTC) exceeds 24k before traders cash out – Source: currency.com
Ethereum tested its own critical resistance line by finally recapturing all gains lost in the wake of the FTX collapse last November.
The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency has been lagging behind bitcoin in the 2023 recovery stakes, but a 3.5% surge yesterday and further gains this morning saw the ETH/USDT pair test US$1,700.
ETH is currently hovering just below this resistance point due to a strong sell wall pitched at US$1,700 which may prove tricky for the bull to surmount.
Metaverse coins
Meta (formerly Facebook) just posted its first revenue slump in history, forcing Mark Zuckerberg to announce a multi-billion-dollar share buyback to investors.
News of the buyback had the desired effect, sending Meta shares soaring more than 25%.
Meta’s Reality Labs division, which is responsible for developing Zuckerberg’s metaverse vision, extended its operating losses to an eyewatering US$13bn. Regardless, has the META rally rubbed off on other metaverse projects?
It would seem so.
Decentraland (MANA) and The Sandbox (SAND), probably the two most popular metaverse cryptocurrencies, added high single digits overnight, bringing their respective market capitalisations up to US$1.47 and US$1.1bn.
Axie Infinity (AXS) jumped 8%, though it is still in the red week-on-week, while Bored Ape Yacht Club’s ApeCoin (APE) added around 6%.
All of the above outperformed bitcoin, but their trading volumes remain stunted, which will likely hinder further momentum. MANA, for instance, has 66% less trading activity compared to this time last year.
Top altcoin movers
Today’s biggest riser in the top-100 set was hybrid centralised/decentralised exchange project Loopring, which mounted a 25% rally to bring its market value close to the US$580mln mark.
Layer-2 protocol Optimism (OP) also added over 20%, while decentralised finance (DeFi) projects Convex Finance (CVX), dYdX (DYDX) and Synthetix (SNX) also trended.
The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) added 4.45% overnight, indicating a net-positive session for the wider cryptocurrency market.
Global cryptocurrency market cap currently stands at US$1.09tn, while total value locked across DeFi protocols is slightly above US$49bn.