Hitting 30k for the first time in nine months last week may have been a cause for celebration among the bitcoin bulls, but it was only the first piece of the puzzle.
Actually sustaining BTC/USDT at the spot rate is significantly harder, though that is what it did for the entirety of the weekend trading session before a bearish turn in this morning’s Asia trading window.
At the time of writing, bitcoin was 1.3% down, ducking below 30k to test US$29,900.
Bitcoin (BTC) fell below 30k Monday morning – Source: currency.com
Meanwhile ether (ETH), which had a generally strong weekend by hitting another 11-month high of US$2,140, fell 1.2% to US$2,090.
ETH’s comparatively strong position – nearly 13% higher week on week compared to bitcoin’s 6% – comes down to the recent Shangai protocol upgrade which put the Ethereum blockchain’s proof-of-stake consensus method into full force.
The initial rally looked to be a vindication of ETH staking; instead of mass withdrawals feared by some, stakers appeared committed to keeping their coins locked up.
But there has been a noticeable drop in ETH staking ratios in recent days, with the percentage of circulating ETH staked dropping from 15.6% on 12 April (the day of the Shanghai upgrade) to just below 15% currently.
Or put another way, over 1.03mln ether coins have been removed from staking, overshooting some expectations but undershooting others.
Total staked ETH went down in recent days – Source: stakingrewards.com
These withdrawals coincide with a noticeable uptick in total ether supply on the exchanges.
Lower ETH staking ratios and an influx of ETH to the exchanges could be read as a bearish sign that traders are looking to sell their holdings, which would explain the recent spot price dip, though it is by no means a crippling set of data points.
Looking at the broader picture, cryptocurrency remains one of the top-performing asset classes of 2023, at least at the blue-chip end of the market. Bitcoin is over 80% higher year to date, while ether is up around 75%.
Altcoin space in the green
The majority of top-20 altcoins remain in a strong week-on-week position, particularly Solana (SOL) at 24%, encouraged by the blockchain network’s recent launch of the Solana-powered Saga smartphone.
Cardano (ADA), BNB, Dogecoin (DOGE) and Avalanche (AVAX) have also added double digits over seven days.
The one outlier is Tron (TRX), which is down half a percent after copping a delisting from Binance’s US platform.
Tron founder Justin Sun is embroiled in a dispute with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on accusations of price manipulation.
Sun received a summons from the New York District Court on 12 April giving him 21 days to respond.
Global cryptocurrency market capitalisation currently stands at US$1.27tn, while total value locked in the decentralised finance (DeFi) space is around US$53.2bn.