Crypto prices live today thanks to Bitcoin

Crypto market prices are being pulled higher today by a buoyant Bitcoin.

In fact, for the first time since June 10, 2022, the price of BTC rose above $30,000.

Most interesting, however, was the manner in which it rose above this threshold.

Crypto Market Prices Today: Bitcoin’s Dominance

An important element that emerged yesterday was the difference between Bitcoin’s daily price growth and the other major cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin posted +6%, significantly higher than the daily gains of all other top 10, except Solana, which had +8%.

Among the top 20, only Litecoin posted a similar gain, while the others posted +4% or less.

In particular, the price of Ethereum rose only 3%, with daily growth half that of Bitcoin.

In other words, yesterday’s crypto market growth was led by BTC, despite tomorrow being an important day for ETH with the launch of the Shanghai Update.

Taking Bitcoin’s dominance as a reference, yesterday it soared near one-year highs, coming very close to the June 11, 2022 record high. These are higher than even the levels touched in October 2021, at the height of the bull run, and only lower than in July of the same year.

Although Bitcoin’s dominance is still less than 50%, it must be said that since May 2021, which is since the first peak of altcoins during the last great bull run, it has never again been able to exceed this threshold. And the current value is very close to the peaks touched after the May 2021 altcoin peak.

However, it is worth mentioning that before the bull run started in November 2020, it was over 60%.

Relationship with Ethereum

Perhaps even more interesting is the relationship between BTC’s market cap and ETH.

Bitcoin capitalizes around 580 billion dollars, while Ethereum 230 dollars. The ratio is currently 2.5 to 1, but just five days ago it was below 2.4.

It is possible that the price of ETH was influenced by the “buy the rumours, sell the news” strategy referring to tomorrow’s Shanghai update, when the BTC/ETH ratio from April 3 to 6 fell in just three days from 2.52 to 2 ,37.

The very next day, however, a kind of recoil began, which brought the ratio back above 2.5 yesterday.

It is worth noting that the current level is by far the highest level since the June 2022 crash, as before the crash it was almost at 3, but afterwards it crashed to 1.83 in mid-September.

This crash was caused by the anticipation of the merger, which would have replaced Proof-of-Work with Proof-of-Stake in Ethereum, but even after the merger it had never again risen above 2.4.

So the wait for the Shanghai update managed to bring it back below 2.4, but only for a few days, after which Bitcoin seems to have resumed its run.

The reason for today’s rise in crypto market prices

There was no news yesterday that justified a rise in Bitcoin’s price above $30,000.

However, it is worth noting that several analysts had already shown charts on Sunday showing possible upward momentum.

On the other hand, in 2023, the trend that Bitcoin’s price follows is similar to the trend in 2019, which was the year after the previous post-bubble bear market, when in 2019 there was a resounding peak in early April.

This year, such a peak at the beginning of April had not occurred, but a smaller one nevertheless occurred approximately eight days late.

The crypto markets have done nothing but follow this Bitcoin peak, albeit in smaller proportions, with a few exceptions.

It is therefore possible that the real reason behind yesterday’s peak in Bitcoin’s price is solely the medium-term trend, which is following a similar path to 2019, and which in April simply had not yet increased.

It should not be forgotten that tomorrow’s US stock market can greatly affect the crypto markets.

The US stock market

Truth be told, the US stock market also tanked yesterday when it was open.

It had opened sharply lower, but during the day it recovered all of its daily loss and ended up closing flat or slightly positive.

The US stock market is weighed down by fear of the inflation figure for March to be published tomorrow, but yesterday it showed that it is not at all dominated by fear.

In fact, it may even be a bit too optimistic, as the expectation for tomorrow is a figure between 5.2% and 5.3%, compared to a figure of 6% in February.

In February, there had already been a significant drop from 5.4% in January, so an even bigger drop in March does not seem particularly likely. Indeed, yesterday’s US stock market performance seems to indicate cautious optimism, which may also be misplaced if the figure published tomorrow should instead be closer to February’s 6% than the 5.2% they were hoping for.

It is worth noting that yesterday’s peak in Bitcoin first occurred with the US stock market open and rising, followed by two more moments of growth with the US stock market now closed. These two other moments occurred almost simultaneously with two moments of growth in Asian stock markets, and in particular the Japanese stock market.

In other words, the price of Bitcoin continues its recovery path, as it did in 2019, somehow taking advantage of growth moments in global markets. Therefore, we must be aware of what will happen tomorrow.