Ethereum reaches more than one-month high as Bitcoin battles with $43,000

The cryptocurrency market leaves significant gains on Wednesday, with notable advances of more than 10% for tokens such as Dogecoin or Cardano, while Bitcoin and Ethereum gain around 3%. Ether - the Ethereum network unit - extends its recent highs of more than a month above $3,000 and looks to the next price level, at $3,200. As for Satoshi Nakamoto´s creation, it seems to want to confirm the overcoming of its resistance at $42,000 and settles at $43,000. The total market capitalization stands at almost $1,96 trillion.

Despite the good tone shown by cryptoassets, experts noted, however, that the digital currency is still consolidating and warn that bulls are not in control of the price as "they need a lot more firepower to drive the price higher going forward," stated Naeem Aslam, analyst at AvaTrade. "The issue is that traders are not all aligned," he commented, arguing that the lack of catalysts in the market is causing the price to waver.

"In Europe and the US, we have more regulatory control over the status of cryptocurrencies, which is positive for long-term sustainability. However, in Asia, there is not a favorable stance among regulators," he explained, Therefore, "this is the reason why over the past few months, the rallies we see for Bitcoin during European or US sessions are seized as an opportunity to short during Asian sessions."

"Moreover, the activity of the wallets shows that the whales are still on the sidelines and the rallies are very much driven by retail customers," the expert pointed out.

In fact, some negative news has weighed on the price of digital tokens recently. Thailand's Security and Exchange Commission announced on Wednesday its decision to ban cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, effective April 1st, 2022. It does, however, allow trading in these products. On the other hand, Honduras and Malaysia are one step away from approving Bitcoin as legal tender, following in the footsteps of El Salvador.

The words of the president of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, about digital assets, during the Innovation 2022 Conference of the Bank for International Settlements, have also trascended during the last hours. Despite acknowledging that a new framework for these assets needs to be established, he emphasized that cryptos and digitization are unstoppable, while making it clear that the central bank is working on the digital dollar. "Existing regulations were not built with digital currencies in mind," he pointed out, so "there will have to be new rules, laws and frameworks to deal with digital currency."

Institutional investors continue to support Bitcoin. Bridgewater Associates is planning to begin exposure to cryptocurrencies, as was announced this week, months after its billionaire founder Ray Dalio revealed that he owns Bitcoins and praised the digital currency. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink stated on Thursday as well that the war between Russia and Ukraine could end up accelerating digital currencies as a tool for settling international transactions, as the conflict puts the globalization momentum of the past three decades in check.

In a letter to shareholders of the world's largest asset manager, Fink commented that the war will push countries to re-evaluate reliance on currencies, and that BlackRock was studying digital currencies and stablecoins due to growing client interest.