Undefinition in cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin consolidates at $19,300

Today, Tuesday, marks another day of little movement in the world of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin (BTC), the world's leading cryptoasset, has been trading practically flat during the last 24 hours and is managing to consolidate $19,300, while Ethereum, the largest 'altcoin', has scored a gain of 0.6% in the same period and maintains $1,340.

The weekend's upward momentum, which saw BTC surpass $19,600, has lost steam over the past day and has left the currency created by Satoshi Nakamoto virtually frozen at its current level. Analysts are undecided about what will happen next, believing that the relative calm and lack of volatility can be interpreted as either a bullish or a bearish sign.

"Cryptoassets traded in a tight range last week as investors watched for market updates and macroeconomic developments. There is a growing sense of anticipation among cryptoasset analysts as prices have been flat for several weeks," explained Simon Peters, expert cryptoasset analyst at eToro.

Yuya Hasegawa, analyst of the Bitbank exchange, stated to 'Barron´s' that he believes that this situation is due to the Bitcoin options market. Money flowing into this market has skyrocketed in recent times, as open interest in BTC options rose to $5.9 billion as of Monday, up from less than $4.8 billion in early October, according to data from 'Coinglass'.

These figures reveal a large concentration of sale options below $19,000 and sale options above $20,000. "Options traders who opened positions at those levels may have been contributing to Bitcoin's lack of direction," Haswgawa commented.

Also, many of these options expire on November 4, two days after the Federal Reserve's (Fed) next monetary policy decision is known, which has been adding additional pressure on the price of cryptocurrencies in recent times because of good bond market yields. Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda, stressed that the next U.S. central bank meeting will change the scenario and that, until then, Bitcoin will continue to trade in the current price range.

On the other hand, many are still watching the movements of the S&P 500, that BTC has correlated closely in recent times. "Since its highs, Bitcoin has fallen 73% and the S&P 500 has descended 27%. In contrast, over the past 3 months, Bitcoin has fallen 27% and the S&P 500 has dropped 19%, a difference of only 8%," noted analyst firm CryptoQuant. Much of the market continues to expect significant declines in the world's largest stock index.

As for other market news, gains of around 1.5% in Polkadot (DOT) over the past 24 hours stand out, as do rallies in Polygon (MATIC) and Dogecoin (DOGE), although the latter has been pulling back during the past few hours. On the flip side, Binance Coin (BNB), Ripple (XRP) and Solana (SOL) are the worst performers, with declines of 0.4%, 1.9% and 1.3%, respectively.