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- Bitcoin surpasses $27.4K, while remaining within a two-week range due to investors’ concerns about crypto regulations and U.S. debt ceiling negotiations.
- Ether and most major altcoins experience a slight increase despite falling stocks and worries over debt ceiling discussions.
Bitcoin Navigates Market Uncertainties
Despite stocks witnessing a downturn, Bitcoin (BTC) maintained its course during Tuesday’s trade, reaching a peak of $27,400 just before the European stock markets opened. As the leading digital asset, Bitcoin has been trading around $27,200, marking a 1.1% rise in the last 24 hours. The crypto market has been stuck between $26,500 and $27,500 for roughly a fortnight, a static phase brought on by the combined stress of cryptocurrency regulatory issues and macroeconomic ambiguities, such as the ongoing U.S. debt ceiling impasse.
Tim Frost, CEO of digital wealth platform Yield App, reflected on this trend in an email to CoinDesk. He observed that the sideways trend in the crypto markets was an improvement from the downward trend of 2022, albeit the market feels stagnant. Currently, the market’s liquidity seems to be circulating among the committed crypto enthusiasts and active traders.
Ethereum and Major Altcoins Show Positive Movement
The crypto market, currently valued at approximately $1.3 trillion, has not seen much change from last year, according to Frost. He noted that there doesn’t appear to be an imminent trigger that could drive the market in either direction, especially given the global macroeconomic uncertainty. Despite this, the outlook seems more positive as U.S. inflation rates, gauged through the Consumer Price Index, dipped below 5% for the first time since early 2021, although still significantly above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%.
Ether (ETH) was also observed to be moving within its two-week range, registering a 1.6% increase over 24 hours and trading at $1,850. Other significant cryptos also reported minor gains, with Aptos (APT) and Solana (SOL) native tokens rising by 3.8% and 2.1%, respectively. The CoinDesk Market Index, reflecting the performance of crypto markets, recently reported a 1.1% increase.
As cryptos were showing a bit of a bounce, stocks, particularly those in the tech sector, showed declines due to concerns about the debt limit. The Nasdaq Composite Index and the S&P 500 both closed lower, declining 1.2% and 1.1% respectively.
Bitcoin Decouples from Broader Market Trends
Strahinja Savic, head of data & analytics at FRNT Financial, in an email to CoinDesk, shared his observations about the dropping correlation between Bitcoin and the S&P 500, a trend that seems to persist into 2023. With macro catalysts like the debt ceiling debate or Fed rate policy coming to a head, Savic sees it as an interesting development to watch how much Bitcoin has decoupled from the broader market. Savic also pointed out that the percentage of Bitcoin’s total supply has remained unchanged for over a year, reaching a new record of 62.13%, indicating that ‘hodlers’ remain committed to the asset.