Bitcoin, Ether gain; traders cautious

Bitcoin, Ether gain; traders cautious

Time Stamp: August 29, 2023 6:38 AM
Bitcoin, Ether gain; traders cautious PlatoBlockchain Data Intelligence. Vertical Search. Ai.

Bitcoin and Ether gained marginally on Tuesday afternoon in Asia. Most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies gained, except Solana and Tron, with Polkadot leading gains at almost 3%. The Forkast 500 non-fungible token (NFT) Index dropped as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Los Angeles-based media company Impact Theory for offering and selling NFTs as unregistered securities. 

See related article: Asia’s richest man bets on blockchain, CBDC

Crypto market in caution mode

Bitcoin gained 0.24% to US$25,984 in 24 hours to 4 p.m. in Hong Kong, which brought its weekly losses to 0.44%, according to CoinMarketCap data. The world’s largest cryptocurrency’s trading volume jumped 33.39% to US$11 billion as its market capitalization climbed 0.04% to US$505.24 billion in the past 24 hours.

“Any additional rate hikes, or concerted attempts by BRICS to reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar as reserve currency do certainly impact price movements, but the sustained importance of Bitcoin’s four-year cyclical growth pattern should not be dismissed, until proven otherwise,” Ben Caselin, vice president and chief strategy officer at crypto trading platform MaskEX, told Forkast on Tuesday. 

“Exactly where Bitcoin prices might go over the course of 2024 and 2025 depends on too many factors to make any sensible guess, but an attempt to break above US$36,000 before the end of 2023 wouldn’t be out of the ordinary. September, however, I would still approach as just another, perhaps final, accumulation month,” he added.

A report by U.S. banking giant JPMorgan Chase has forecast “limited downside” for the crypto market as losses slow. Analysts found a drop in the number of Bitcoin-linked futures contracts on exchanges that are yet to be settled — a sign that downward price movement is losing its momentum.

Ether, world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, gained 0.31% to US$1,646 in the past 24 hours, but posted a weekly loss of 1.24%.

However, most of the major cryptocurrencies continue to trade sideways amid the prevailing caution in the markets, Samer Hasn, market analyst at multi-asset brokerage firm XS.com, told Forkast on Tuesday. 

The continued state of caution in the cryptocurrency market is reflected in the decline in trading volumes to the lowest levels in years, Hasn said.

“I believe that this accumulation, in conjunction with the record decline in trading volumes, reflects the state of caution among investors as a result of the lack of clarity in the regulatory environment for the cryptocurrency market so far, especially in the United States with the ongoing court battles between regulators, led by the SEC, and cryptocurrency developers, exchanges, and others,” Hasn added.

Most other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptos gained in the past 24 hours, except Solana and Tron. Polkadot led gains, rising 2.97% to US$4.58, and gained 3.32% on the week. 

Total crypto market capitalization gained 0.33% to US$1.05 trillion, while market volume rose 27.29% to US$24.05 billion in the past 24 hours.

NFT traders about to ‘get wrecked?’

The indexes are proxy measures of the performance of the global NFT market. They are managed by CryptoSlam, a sister company of Forkast.News under the Forkast.Labs umbrella.

The main Forkast 500 NFT index fell 0.40% to 2,231.59 in 24 hours to 6.40 p.m. in Hong Kong, losing 3.53% on the week.

Forkast’s Ethereum and Polygon indexes were also down, while the Solana index rose.

The NFT market sentiment took a hit after the U.S. SEC charged Los Angeles-based media company Impact Theory with offering and selling NFTs as unregistered securities. This is the first direct enforcement action by the regulator against an NFT project.

“I think we can all agree that NFT collection prices have already seen quite the downturn, but sentiment can indeed worsen over the short-term,” Caselin of MaskEx told Forkast. 

“As for the SEC, I do not believe there will be too many significant changes in its current positioning, not until after the U.S. Presidential election. In other words, while we may (or may not) see the approval of a Bitcoin spot ETF, overall it’s likely we will see more enforcement actions and NFTs will certainly not be spared,” Caselin added.

According to Hasn of XS.com, this intervention by the SEC may deepen the crisis of confidence between the participants and cryptocurrency markets, including non-fungible tokens markets, which are facing a continuous deterioration in momentum. 

“[This] may put more pressure on prices and trading volumes that are already low, until the regulatory and legislative environment governing this market becomes clear,” Hasn added. 

Total NFT transactions dropped 3.86% in the past 24 hours, according to CryptoSlam data. At the same time, sales volume gained 7.34% to US$10.40 million.

Sales volume on Ethereum gained 9.52% to US$5.62 million, and the rest of the top five chains – Solana, Mythos, ImmutableX and Polygon – all posted gains. 

“Interestingly, most of the NFT composites are up after a couple of days of positive sentiment in the NFT market, but I suspect they were confusing rising prices (from low volume) for some type of real rebound. Traders are about to get wrecked,” said Yehudah Petscher, NFT strategist for Forkast Labs.

(updates with NFT section.)

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