Bitcoin and Ethereum eased slightly but continued to hover around 3-week highs as investors stay cautious amid concern over the global economy and the war in Ukraine.
The largest token by market cap fell 0.38% to US$42,117 while Ethereum dropped 1.20% to US$2,956.
Bitcoin had dipped below US$42,000 before recovering above the key resistance level.
Ethereum spent most of the last 24 hours above US$3,000 before easing.
Cryptos movements contradicted the tech-heavy indices it increasingly mirrors, with the Nasdaq climbing 1.95% to 14,108 points and the Hang Seng 1.29% to 22,171 points.
Naeem Aslam, a market analyst at AvaTrade said the fall in “digital gold is a sign that bulls are just not in good shape”.
“Bitcoin bulls need a lot more firepower for the Bitcoin price from here onwards,” Aslam added.
The analyst believes traders have different views on cryptocurrency and Bitcoin, influenced by the regulatory outlook in different markets.
“In Europe and in the US, we have more regulatory overlook on the crypto situation, which is positive for the long-term sustainability.”
There had been concerns the regulations would be too strict, but an executive order by US president Joe Biden was far less imposing than originally feared.
“However, in Asia, there is no favourable stance among regulators. Hence, this is the reason that over the past number of months, the rallies that we see for Bitcoin during the European or the US sessions are taken up as an opportunity to short during the Asian sessions,” Aslam said.
There needs to be more clarity from regulators in Asia to restore faith in a large portion of the crypto market, he said.
Aslam also added large investors and holders of the coins are sitting on what they have, rather than entering the market.
“Wallet activity shows that the whales are still sitting on the sideline, and rallies are very much driven by retail clients.”
In some of the altcoins, Cardano was up 3.62% to US$0.9721, Polkadot rose 2.67% to US$20.30 and Avalanche fell 3.61% to US$85.07.