Ether has risen more than 9% since the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade, which held center stage in crypto markets for much of the week. Bitcoin held fast above $30,000.
Major digital assets surged in an eventful week that included encouraging inflation veri and the much anticipated Ethereum Shanghai upgrade. Once-shaken confidence in crypto markets rose, along with valuations and trading volumes.
Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) have risen about 9% and 11%, respectively, over the past seven days, with much of the gains occurring over the latter few days.
In recent economic reports inflation was lower than expected and jobless claims were higher than expected. The Fed may have been hoping for such signs as reason to justify not raising interest rates again when the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) next meets in May.
Bond markets have begun to respond. The spread between two- and 10-year Treasury bonds, while still negative, has narrowed since early March.
Crypto markets’ biggest news was the completion of the Shanghai update, allowing ETH stakers to withdraw their ETH deposits. Ether has responded positively, increasing about 9% in price since the upgrade was completed.
Ether 04/14/23 (TradingView)
One of investors’ prevailing fears was that the potential unlocking of 18.2 million ETH would lead to selling pressure on the asset. However, markets have so far viewed the de- risking of ETH staking positively.
ETH’s price upswing has led to the asset chipping away at bitcoin dominance by market capitalization. Crypto market trading volume also rose, as ETH’s daily volume spiked to more than twice its 20-day moving average on Thursday. BTC volume breached its 20-day moving average each day this week, with the exception of Thursday
Both BTC and ETH breached the upper range of their Bollinger Bands this week, an indication of increased bullishness. The Bollinger Bands indicator is a technical tool that plots an asset’s moving average and two standard deviations above and below. A breach of Bollinger Bands in either direction is considered to be a significant event, in this case a bullish one.
Some altcoins had a push higher this week as well. ARB, the native token for Ethereum layer 2 system Arbitrum, led the way – up 28% over the past seven days. Solana (SOL) and Immutable X’s IMX also had strong weeks, rising 20% and 17%, respectively.
Recommended for you:
Crypto Custodian Finoa Gets License Approvals From German Regulator BaFin
Terraform Labs, Do Kwon Transferred More Than 10K Bitcoin Out of Platform Accounts After Collapse: SEC
Martin Shkreli Is Back. He Loves Crypto
Join the Most Important Conversation in Crypto and Web3 in Austin, Texas April 26-28
BTC and ETH have risen about 9% and 12%, respectively, over the past seven days. While BTC has driven the market this year so far, the Shapella upgrade has boosted ETH trading, according to an analyst.
Bitcoin and ether’s prices rose handsomely in an eventful week of mildly encouraging inflation veri and Ethereum’s long-awaited Shapella upgrade.
Bitcoin (BTC) was recently trading at $30,450, up 0.4% from 24 hours ago and more than 9% for the week, according to CoinDesk veri. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization breached $31,000 earlier in the day before retreating during the U.S. intraday (ET).
Ether (ETH) gained 5.4% on Friday to recently trade at $2,105. It’s up over 12% for the week.
Bitcoin, Ether 7-Day Returns (CoinDesk Research)
“Ether and bitcoin have both seen upside follow-through after confirming base breakouts in late March, which are as positive intermediate-term developments on their charts,” Will Tamplin, senior analyst at technical research firm Fairlead Strategies, told CoinDesk in an email.
Tamplin noted that ETH and BTC’s next major resistance levels are roughly $2,400 and $35,900, respectively, targeted over the next several weeks.
Yet, he added that with both assets “beginning to look extended in the short term … we would not rule out a pullback in the coming days to digest recent gains,” with initial support near $1,670 for ETH and $25,200 for BTC.
Greg Magadini, director of derivatives at crypto analytics firm Amberdata, highlighted in an interview with CoinDesk that the relative expensiveness of ETH calls versus puts in ETH – also known as the risk reversal skew – currently sits positive to the call side for all expirations post-Shapella. Magadini said that this trend signals “bullish activity in the sense that people are willing to hisse more on the call side.”
Typically, a call buyer is bullish about the market, while the put buyer is bearish.
Magadini noted that while bitcoin has driven options volume, open interest and volatility this year, particularly as BTC surged in January and after last month’s banking crisis, “the Shapella upgrade is the first time that we’re getting some life back into the Ethereum market,” he said.
Prior to the upgrade, investors split on how the market would react to the event, with some expecting potential selling pressure to ETH and others believing no major impact on the market.
“On Ethereum, developers have proven that they can follow through on their vision,” Magadini said. “We’ve made a major milestone and so this brings back validity and credibility to Ethereum.”
Meanwhile, several other altcoins jumped Friday. Decentralized smart contracts platform Injective Protocol’s INJ surged more than 28% in the past 24 hours to trade at $8.64, while artificial intelligence-focused crypto protocol Fetch.ai’s FET rose by 13% to trade at 40 cents. Layer 2 network Optimism’s OP was up 7% to $2.62.
The CoinDesk Market Index, which measures the overall crypto market performance, was up 9% for the week.
Recommended for you:
Terraform Labs, Do Kwon Transferred More Than 10K Bitcoin Out of Platform Accounts After Collapse: SEC
Bitcoin Miner Bitfarms Sinks to Fourth-Quarter Loss as Difficulty, Costs Rise
What Hic et Nunc’s Resurrection Says About Decentralized Infrastructure
Join the Most Important Conversation in Crypto and Web3 in Austin, Texas April 26-28
Equities wrapped up Friday lower as investors started to process the earnings season: The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed down 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was down 0.4% for the day.
By its very nature, bitcoin is stable and isn’t exactly the talk of the town, Michael Safai said.
Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is steadfast and mundane, said Michael Safai, managing partner at financial services firm Dexterity Capital. But that’s a good thing.
“Bitcoin’s going to be the boring old grandpa right now in the room,” Safai told CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover” on Friday referring to why, during these uncertain economic times, bitcoin’s rally may be due to its simple, more familiar story.
Certainly a lot of the excitement in the crypto market is happening in ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, he noted.
On Wednesday Ethereum underwent its Shanghai upgrade, also known as Shapella. The blockchain’s upgrade raised questions about whether there would be major sell-offs. Instead, ETH’s price inched above $2,000 two days after the long anticipated upgrade, beating out bitcoin in options trading, for the first time this year.
While the upgrade allows users to withdraw the ETH they’ve staked (as well as reducing fees and opening space on the blockchain for more transactions), Safai pointed out that “a lot of things are happening” with ether, including allegations from U.S. government officials who say it is a security and should be regulated as such.
Bitcoin, on the other hand, is sidestepping the “chaos of all the investigations,” he said. For now, at least, it appears the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is comfortable with treating bitcoin as a commodity, unlike its view of ether.
With Ethereum’s upgrade, the “rules of the game have just changed,” Safai said. It may also be the reason there is excitement in the markets from users.
Recommended for you:
The Missing CryptoQueen Has Friends in (Very) High Places
Winklevoss Twins Lent Their Crypto Platform Gemini $100M: Bloomberg
DeFi Giant MakerDAO Integrates Blockchain Data Provider Chainlink for DAI Stablecoin
Join the Most Important Conversation in Crypto and Web3 in Austin, Texas April 26-28
“We’re seeing more activity on the options side and I expect that to continue,” he said.
