Bitcoin rises with $30,000 in sight. The weekend could bring some wild moves.
Bitcoin
and other cryptocurrencies rose on Friday after a volatile but buoyant week. However, Saturday and Sunday lie ahead as a challenge for crypto traders, with a lack of liquidity in the markets likely to amplify price swings.
The price of Bitcoin has risen 1.5% in the past 24 hours to $28,100 and returned to the zone near $28,500, marking both the recent peak for the largest crypto and the highest level since June of last year, when the bear market that defined 2022 accelerated. Bitcoin is up 70% so far this year, spurring another bull market. Analysts have seen the $30,000 level – where prices stood before the June sell-off – as the key.
“Bitcoin still has a good chance to test the $30,000 level,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, an analyst at broker FxPro, but added that a medium-term correction to $25,000 was still a risk if prices do not rally.
After weeks of outperformance, digital assets have largely slipped back into their correlation with the stock market this week, oscillating around
Dow Jones Industrial Average
and
S&P 500
and acts as a barometer for risk appetite.
But the weekend could prove to be a challenge for traders of digital assets and could be a fresh start for Bitcoin’s next move anyway.
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Crypto markets have suffered from a lack of liquidity – essentially the amount of buyers and sellers on hand – since the collapse of the FTX exchange in November, and the situation has been exacerbated by the recent collapse of two crypto-focused banks. Bitcoin’s weekend trading volume in particular has plummeted, with weekends now seeing on average a third less volume than weekdays, according to data provider Kaiko.
“Crypto markets are at their most volatile when liquidity is low. Prices have less support to both the downside and the upside, which may explain Bitcoin’s rapid 17% gain since the beginning of the month,” said Conor Ryder, analyst at crypto data provider Kaiko. “The Liquidity Situation in Crypto hangs in the balance.”
Beyond Bitcoin,
Ether
— the second largest crypto — advanced 2.5% to $1,800. Smaller cryptos or altcoins were more mixed, too
Cardano
down 3% and
Polygon
over flat. Memecoins were also slightly weaker, with both
Dogecoin
and
Shiba Inu
losing less than 1%.
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Write to Jack Denton at [email protected]
