Positive signs are showing in the crypto market as Bitcoin holds above $23,700

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(Kitco News) – Consolidation remains the name of the game for the crypto market as prices have begun to stabilize and show signs of trending higher while investors remain cautious following another round of hawkish Fedspeak suggesting a return of aggressive rate hikes.

The fact that both Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari and Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic hinted at the possibility of a 50 basis point hike at the Fed’s next policy meeting on 21-22. March, gave investors reason to adopt a risk-off approach, leading to a pullback in stocks. At the end of the markets, the S&P and Nasdaq ended in the red, down 0.47% and 0.66%, respectively, while the Dow managed a small gain of 0.02%.

Data provided by TradingView shows that Bitcoin (BTC) saw an intraday price swing of 4%, climbing from a low of $23,248 in the early hours to a daily high of $24,178 near midday before retreating to support at $23,700.

BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

According to Kitco senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff, “bulls still have the overall technical advantage in the short term as a price uptrend is in place on the daily chart, but only just.” If they want to keep control, “the Bulls need to show more power soon to keep the uptrend alive and to keep their technical advantage,” Wyckoff said.

Further insight into the bullish scenario for Bitcoin was provided by analysts at Eight Global, who noted that the BTC chart shows “that we have a set of equal highs at the top around $25,200.”

BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: Eight Global

“These levels contain liquidity and it may be possible that the price will pull towards these levels,” Eight Global said. “What needs to happen if we want to see that there is actually a bullish flip of the current resistance area. So the scenario you want to see is a resistance break and a bullish retest of the same area could give us a push towards new highs.”

On the bearish side of the equation, Eight Global highlighted the major resistance level “in the form of a 4-hour supply area,” adding that “we have a sequence of making lower highs and lower lows.”

BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: Eight Global

“If we get a further breakdown on the lower time frame, we are very likely to reach at least $22,700, and if the downward momentum continues, then the region around $22,000 would be logical to find support,” the analysts wrote.

According to Eight Global founder Michaël van de Poppe, the Bitcoin price level to keep an eye on that will signal a continuation of upward momentum in the market is $23,800.

The $23.8000 area remains a crucial breaker for the markets to continue the upward momentum.#Bitcoin must break it to continue. pic.twitter.com/sqRObCVPAG

— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) 1 March 2023

Altcoins on the rise

It was a generally positive day for the altcoin market, with the majority of tokens in the top 200 in the green as traders saw the latest sideways price action as an opportunity to rally their favorite projects.

Daily performance in the cryptocurrency market. Source: Coin360

Top performers on the day included RSK Infrastructure Framework (RSK), Maker (MKR) and Conflux (CFX), which posted gains of 22.65%, 19.35% and 17.66% respectively.

The total cryptocurrency market cap is now $1.072 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 42.2%.