Cryptos slowdown; Bitcoin consolidates at $30,000
There´s a slowdown in the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin (BTC) loses $30,000 once more and Ethereum (ETH), after several days at a high, falls back to slightly below $2,100.
"All eyes in the crypto market are still focused on Bitcoin's price movement. The fact that the price of cryptocurrency has begun to consolidate is both positive and negative," stated Naeem Aslam, chief investment officer at Zaye Capital Markets.
According to the expert, he worries that the market momentum, especially in the reigning cryptocurrency, could dissipate. On the positive side, "no one wants to see Bitcoin rise exponentially " as it "raises the chances of a sudden death in the price motion." "The ideal case would be to see sustained higher highs, which we haven't seen since the price moved beyond $30,000," he noted.
According to Vetle Lunde, an analyst at K33 Research, Bitcoin's fall could be related to higher-than-expected inflation in the UK. "The hotter-than-expected U.K. CPI may have weighed over risk assets, including BTC. But the gravity of the reaction has been far far more severe than in other asset classes," he stated.
For his part, Edward Moya, senior analyst at Oanda, believes that cryptos "are losing some appeal" as the risks caused by the March banking crisis seem to be disappearing. Of the big US banks, only Goldman Sachs has disappointed with its figures, while others such as JP Morgan or Wells Fargo have shot up their earnings.
In this regard, Dessislava Aubert, senior analyst at Kaiko, indicated in an interview on 'CoinDesk TV' that the strength of this rebound will depend almost entirely on market liquidity. "The rally started with the Fed (U.S. Federal Reserve) providing emergency liquidity to banks in the United States. So definitely, liquidity is playing a huge role," she explained.
"We have seen that markets are expecting great cuts in the second half of the year. So there is still a lot of uncertainty around whether this will be the case or not. Ultimately, it will depend on how U.S. monetary policy turns out," the expert added. According to the FedWatch tool, the probability of the Fed executing a 25 basis point rate hike at its May 3 conclave stands at 85%.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is also back on the scene after announcing that it will sue cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex and its co-founder, William Shihara, for selling unregistered securities and other violations of federal securities laws.
Related to this, Brian Armstrong, CEO and co-founder of Coinbase, stated that the platform could leave the United States if regulatory clarity does not improve in the future.
In the rest of the market, there have been significant drops in the main tokens. Solana (SOL) has fallen more than 2% in the last 24 hours, as well as Binance coin (BNB), while Cardano (ADA) has dropped around 2%.