Bitcoin hovers close to $35,000, ETH breaches $1,800 mark

Crypto market overview: The consistent gains registered by BTC have overshadowed the price action of ETH and other major altcoins. This has led to BTC dominance hitting a new 30-month high of over 54 per cent; the highest since April 2021. However, as investors become comfortable with the risk curve during this market phase, altcoins may see an uptick in investor interest, leading to a correction in BTC dominance.

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index also remains in the ‘Greed’ zone with 71 points as the overall crypto market sentiment remains positive. 

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Parth Chaturvedi, Investments Lead, CoinSwitch Ventures while talking to Republic about the crypto market movement in the last 24 hours, said, “Major narratives that seem to be driving BTC’s performance are the spot ETF approval, and BTC is a safe haven amidst global macroeconomic uncertainties. Currently trading over $34k, BTC’s price seems to have doubled this year while ETH is up by almost 50 per cent.”

“In terms of other cryptos, Polygon developers have announced that smart contracts of the upcoming POL token have gone live on the Ethereum mainnet as the Polygon blockchain sets motion to its plans. The POL token is expected to be valid on all blockchains that run atop the Polygon network,” added Chaturvedi. 

Small-time investors enter the crypto market: WazirX

Rajagopal Menon, Vice President, WazirX, told Republic that small-time investors are coming back to the crypto market, taking the Bitcoin rally forward. Menon said, “The Bitcoin rally continues as small-time investors flock to the market amidst ETF anticipation. There’s also a sense of FOMO among investors who want to turn to Bitcoin as an investment for uncertain times.”

“Among institutional investors, larger asset managers also indicate Bitcoin adoption plans, taking the market sentiment to its peak, as indicated by Bitcoin’s moving averages,” Menon added.

Sudeep Saxena, Co-Founder, Coin Gabbar also shared his views on the market conditions. Saxena said, “The Bitcoin price rally has resumed its upward trajectory following a brief pause on Wednesday. Traders are exuding optimism and enthusiasm, largely fueled by the prospects of a potential approval of a Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States.”

Renewed enthusiasm in crypto market

Shivam Thakral, CEO, BuyUcoin, “The crypto market sentiment reached the same level as it did during the dream bull run of November 2021 when BTC touched an all-time high of $69,000. The overall crypto market cap touched $1.27 trillion with BTC and ETH leading the effort. Interestingly, Bitcoin has rallied over 23 per cent in just 7 days, registering its best performance of the year. The growing optimism around Bitcoin ETF may send the Bitcoin value higher in the coming weeks.”

Edul Patel, CEO, Mudrex, said, “Bitcoin’s price has grown over 23 per cent over the last 7 days and is trading around $34,700. This indicates an impressive growth of more than 109.47 per cent over the current year. This price movement has renewed enthusiasm and caused a bullish sentiment in the market. Meanwhile, Ethereum is trading around the $1790 mark. Altcoins like Solana and Dogecoin saw a price increase of more than 4 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively.”

Apart from that, extending Web3’s institutional push, Mastercard and MoonPay are collaborating to explore how blockchain-based Web3 technology can enhance consumer loyalty in the crypto and NFT payment space. Card networks have been exploring the Web3 ecosystem for some time now, working on different areas.