Despite global instabilities, cryptocurrencies hit the $2 trillion benchmark at the end of the first quarter. Bitcoin broke out of the confined $34,000-$44,000 bracket it had been trading in throughout 2022 at a high of $47,765. It has increased 18 percent in a continuous upward trajectory since March 21.
Stock markets, traditional currencies, and even safe-haven gold have been jolted by the Ukraine-Russia crisis and the Federal Reserve’s tightening.
The jitteriness surrounding Bitcoin has suddenly decreased. Experts estimate that its 30-day volatility is around 4%, or about two-thirds of what it was in June 2021. On March 16, the year’s high was 4.56 percent.
Bitcoin’s price has continued to fluctuate dramatically, including a 17 percent spike on March 1. It is, however, far milder than it was in 2021 when it might change by up to 40% in a day.
On Friday, the total value of the cryptocurrency market reached $2 trillion. To put things in perspective, on November 10th, the market briefly reached $3 trillion when bitcoin touched $69,000.
Bitcoin’s market capitalization has risen to $902 billion, though it has a fair path to recapture the $1 trillion it managed to hold back in November. Since Bitcoin is the most valuable cryptocurrency, its market share has gradually dropped from 70% of its total value in early 2021 to 42%.
Many cryptocurrency speculators believed they could foretell bitcoin’s fate long before the unpredictable cryptocurrency left them stuck.
“Although bitcoin is remaining strong in the short term, rising oil prices increase the likelihood of a recession over the coming year or so,” said Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst at UK-based digital asset broker GlobalBlock.
“Oil has increased by around 25% in the past six days alone, and bitcoin bulls will want to see this tail off for continued strength.”
However, other fundamental indicators point to bitcoin’s extreme volatility. Funding rates have gone mildly positive after being negative for most of the year, showing that investors are willing to pay.
Bitcoin is presently trading at 0.003 percent, down from a high of 0.06 percent in October. From 0.95 on March 20, Coinglass’ longs-to-shorts ratio has increased to 1.1, the highest level in at least four weeks. Almost 60% of bitcoin’s total supply was held for more than 52 weeks, up from 54.72 percent in the previous 25 weeks.
However, Ashwath Balakrishnan, vice president of research at Bengaluru-based Delphi Digital, cautioned that pinpointing a long-term market trend was difficult.
“Everyone’s a little cautious,” he said. “If (bitcoin) rejects off of $46k and goes back down, then it probably means we’re stuck with range-bound conditions for at least another month or so.”
