Bitcoin has maintained a steady upswing, despite the bear forces that seem to be active in the markets today. Ethereum is showing bearish tendencies, as altcoins including Cardano (ADA), Polkadot (DOT), XRP (XRP), Uniswap (UNI), and Chainlink (LINK) are all also bowing to the dictatorship of the bears.
In general, the dominant stride of Bitcoin has kept the global market capitalization in the green zone, up 2.13% in the past 24 hours to $1.69 trillion. This article today focuses on the price actions of Bitcoin and Ethereum, and the possible short and medium-term projections for the two leading digital assets.
Bitcoin’s Demand Remains High, A Bullish Backing For an Ambitious Ride
Bitcoin’s dominance in the market is not about to be pulled down as many analysts have suggested as the premier cryptocurrency is continuously seeing increased demand, from both retail and institutional investors.
In a bid to meet this demand, American investment banking giant JPMorgan Chase & Co filed an application with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch an investment vehicle that will track the performance of 11 firms including MicroStrategy and Tesla with direct or indirect exposure to Bitcoin. The primary aim of the move is to give more institutional investors a new option to get involved in Bitcoin without directly owning the digital currency.
In terms of the rub off on the price of the asset, BTC bulls are delighted by the news from JPMorgan Chase, but the immediate pressure from undecided HODLers to offload some of their holdings is casting doubt on the imminent bullish runs to new highs. Despite the maintenance of an uptrend with a growth of 3% to $55,580.00 according to CEX.IO price feeds, the bear actions are still visible on the daily BTC-USD chart on TradingView.
The chart shows a bullish trend, indicating that there are more buyers than sellers in the past 24 hours. However, the last candlestick shown on the chart is bearish, a depiction of an attempted takeover by the bears. By and large, BTC’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) is currently slightly below the sell-zone of 70, but the 9-day Moving Average is bullish, reassuring market enthusiasts on an imminent ride to new highs.
From current indications, Bitcoin may see a little correction to retouch $54,000, after which, a run to $58,000 will be the next stop.
Ethereum’s Push For Network Usability and Miner’s Protest Giving a Bearish Advantage
The high gas fees of the Ethereum Network have spurred many users to abandon the blockchain in search of alternative blockchains that offer cheap and fast transactions. Nonetheless, the majority of the Stablecoins out there including Tether (USDT) and USDC are still utilizing the network, helping to maintain the relevance amid planned exodus by DeFi smart contracts.
While anticipating the initiation of the Ethereum Improvement Protocol (EIP) 1559 in July, Some Ethereum miners are in protest as the planned token burning is set to affect their personal profitability. Perhaps, this is why the price of Ethereum is seeing a roadblock on its way to beat the $2,000 psychological level.
At the time of writing, Ethereum is exchanging hands at $1,782.72, a drop of 1.48% in the past 24 hours. Ethereum has traded below the $2,000 level since February 20th, and the current internal battles are undermining the mainstream investor’s desire to see the coin trade at new levels.
The daily ETH-USD chart above shows the unrelenting battle between the bulls and the bears. Though the Awesome Oscillator is above the zero benchmarks, the price is not entirely at a trusted level to soar, as it is racing away from the upper Bollinger Band as seen.
The hurdles to cross are the $1,900 and the $2,000 resistance levels, but until the bulls break free from the $1,800 level, soaring to these levels may yet be halted for a while. But a consistent push will see the coin back on track to aim at the $2,500 target in the mid-term.
Konstantin Anissimov, Executive Director at CEX.IO