Bitcoin Back Above $46K; Altcoins Outperform

Everything you need to make sense of the crypto markets and beyond

By the CoinDesk Markets Team

Edited by Lawrence Lewitinn, Managing Editor, Global Capital Markets

August 13, 2021

Sponsored by

Bitcoin (BTC)

+2.2% $46,220

Ether (ETH)

+3.3% $3,342

(Price data as of August 13 @ 9:00 UTC)

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Good morning, and welcome to First Mover. Here's what's happening this morning:

The ETH/BTC ratio is holding support above 0.05 and could face initial resistance near 0.08.

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Raghu Yarlagadda, FalconX

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Aaron J. Tilton, Blue Castle Holdings

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Market Moves

by Sebastian Sinclair

Bitcoin Back Above $46K on Low Daily Volume as Altcoins Outperform

Bitcoin has clawed back lost ground from Thursday’s 2.4% sell that saw the crypto reach lows of around $43,800.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value was up 1.5% over a 24-hour period by press time and is currently changing hands for around $46,100.

Bitcoin is beginning to edge closer toward analyst’s projected $50,000 price tag, as CoinDesk reported Thursday.

“We were seeing many investors taking advantage of recent market movements by taking profits,” said Asher Tan, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange CoinJar. “There’s a trend of conservatism among users who jumped into crypto around similar price levels earlier in the year, with users slightly trimming their holdings.”

Indeed, bitcoin (BTC)‘s total daily volume across major exchanges, including Bitstamp, remains flat when compared to previous months, particularly towards the end of May.

BTC/USD Daily Chart Bitstamp Exchange (Source: TradingView)

“While the recent price movements have seen an increased amount of activity in the markets, trading volumes globally are nowhere near where they were the last time the price was at $45,000 – they’re much lower,” said Janine Grainger, co-founder of Australia-based exchange Easy Crypto.

The co-founder points toward new investors remaining cautious ever since they had a taste of the crypto market’s volatility when the sell-off in May saw bitcoin prices drop 50% from $56,700 to around $30,000 in a little over a week.

Yet seasoned investors, Grainger said, are increasingly active with data hinting at a strong uptake in altcoins, beginning Aug. 9. “In particular, ether (ETH) has picked up significantly against bitcoin and that is starting to trend again, as of today,” she said.

“Some folks are worried we’re about to repeat history with this year’s $60,000-$30,000-$45,000, but this time it really is different,” BCB Group CEO Oliver von Landsberg-Sadie told CoinDesk via Telegram on Friday. “There is a ton of institutional money in the system, which behaves very differently from retail money; the ecosystem has evolved significantly with hundreds of thousands of man hours of innovation; and regulation has gained much greater definition.”

Ether isn’t the only crypto trending higher on the day with cardano (ADA), stellar (XLM) and solana posting the highest gains. Zooming out to a seven-day period, most altcoins in the top 20 by market cap are outperforming bitcoin while most decentralized finance (DeFi) cryptos are trending higher in the green, up between 6%-90% over the same period.

“In terms of altcoins, many cryptocurrencies especially DeFi coins, have been lagging in comparison to bitcoin and ether,” said Tan. However, we’re starting to see a trend of users swapping bitcoin for DeFi coins, which has been a catalyst for the recent appreciation in their price.”

Read the original story here:

Bitcoin Back Above $46K on Low Daily Volume as Altcoins Outperform

Technician's Take

by Damanick Dantes, CMT

Ether Upside Strengthens Relative to Bitcoin

Ether (ETH) broke out of a two month consolidation relative to bitcoin (BTC) last week. The ETH/BTC ratio is holding support above 0.05 and could face initial resistance near 0.08.

Ether’s outperformance could signal growing interest beyond bitcoin given the appeal of DeFi and the Ethereum blockchain’s latest network update known as the London hard fork.

The chart below shows ETH/BTC’s long-term ascending channel, which provided strong support over the past two years.

Weekly chart of ether-bitcoin (ETH/BTC) ratio. (Source: TradingView)

Despite ether’s underperformance relative to bitcoin during the 2018 crypto bear market, the second largest cryptocurrency has maintained an uptrend that began in 2016.

Read the original story here:

Ether Upside Strengthens Relative to Bitcoin

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Disclaimer: The information presented in this message is intended as a news item that provides a brief summary of various events and developments that affect, or that might in the future affect, the value of one or more of the cryptocurrencies described above. The information contained in this message, and any information liked through the items contained herein, is not intended to provide sufficient information to form the basis for an investment decision. The information presented herein is accurate only as of its date, and it was not prepared by a research analyst or other investment professional. You should seek additional information regarding the merits and risks of investing in any cryptocurrency before deciding to purchase or sell any such instruments.

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