Bitcoin and Ethereum rallied to offset some of the weekend’s losses but remain under “decent selling pressure” due to rising inflation.
The largest coin by market cap gained 4.6% to US$40,764. It had fallen as low as US$38,725 yesterday before trading back above the key support level of US$40,000.
Ethereum climbed 4.33% to US$3,044. The coin had also fallen below its key support level of US$3,000 over the Easter weekend.
According to Ipek Ozkardeskaya, a senior analyst at Swissquote, Bitcoin “remains under a decent selling pressure.”
“Appetite in cryptocurrencies is limited due to the rising inflation that boosts the expectations of a tighter US Federal Reserve policy and a possible recession.”
Over the weekend, cryptocurrencies mirrored the movements of tech stocks and indices.
The Nasdaq index lost 0.5% since Thursday to 13,332 while the Hang-Seng in Hong Kong is currently down 2.38% to 21,005.
However, Jeffrey Halley, a senior market analyst at OANDA, believes the rally in the last 24 hours was sparked by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and his comments over Russia’s renewed attack in the Donbas area of Eastern Ukraine.
Halley adds that “it is too soon to say Bitcoin’s geopolitical risk-hedge time has finally come.”
“At various stages, it has been a hedge against inflation, deflation, dollar debasement, political risk, geopolitical risk.”
Among the altcoins, Solana was us 4.62% to US$101.96, Terra was up 16.1% to US$89.01 and Avalanche was us 5.85% to US$77.61.