Bitcoin holds above $24k as banking crisis spreads across globe

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(Kitco News) – It was a day of consolidation for the cryptocurrency market as many tokens saw their recent gains pared by profit-takers while Bitcoin (BTC) traded sideways and managed to hold above the $24,000 support.

Things were a little more volatile in the stock market, as the banking crisis that started with Silicon Valley Bank has now gone international, with Credit Suisse (CS) shares plunging 20% ​​on the day, resulting in popular meme token Dogecoin (DOGE) has a higher market value than the multinational bank. At the close of US markets, the S&P and Dow were in the red, down 0.69% and 0.87% respectively, while the Nasdaq saw a minimal gain of 0.05%.

Data provided by TradingView shows that the Bitcoin price traded in a range between $23,930 and $25,250 on Wednesday, and is near the middle of this range at $24,400 at the time of writing, representing a small gain of 0.1% on the 24-hour chart.

BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

Kitco senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff called BTC’s retreat below yesterday’s high of $26,514 “a routine corrective pullback after hitting a contract high on Tuesday,” noting that “April Bitcoin futures prices were lower in early US trading on Wednesday.”

From a macro perspective, “bulls have the solid technical advantage in the near term as a new price uptrend is in place on the daily bar chart,” Wyckoff said, adding that “The path of least resistance for prices is sideways to higher.”

Further insight into Tuesday’s move was provided by analysts at Eight Global, who observed that BTC price finally broke out of the range it has been stuck in for months now, but the joy was short-lived as “the tables were turned at the end of the day” when bears “made the daily candle to be a swing failure,” resulting in a daily close below “the crucial level around $25,300.”

BTC/USD 1-Day Chart. Source: Eight Global

“Purely from a technical point of view and thus the principles of range trading, it is possible to search for shorts in the high range area,” the analysts wrote. “When you do, remember that with the current scenario surrounding the macro economy, we could see very rapid changes in price, so take that into account when calculating your risk.”

For those looking for longs, Eight Global advises patience as it will take time for the market to recover and consolidate.

“The first area is around $23.5,000 where you might become interested in positioning yourself for a potential move to the upside,” they said. “This area is defined with a break area.”

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

“If we are unable to sustain the breaker area for support, the next region to watch is around the $22.2K-22.6K area,” Eight Global said. “This area would be seen as a classic support resistance flip.”

And as a final recommendation for those looking to open a long position, the analysts said to keep an eye on a higher high on the BTC chart. “The region you should look for is the resistance level around $28.6K.”

Red day for altcoins

It was a red day for the altcoin market as profit taking resulted in a pullback for the majority of the top 200, with only a handful of tokens managing to post gains on the day.

Daily performance in the cryptocurrency market. Source: Coin360

The only performance of the note was a 24.3% gain for Ribbon Finance (RBN) as the protocol celebrated the launch of its new options platform. Of the top 200, Filecoin (FIL) was the worst performer on Wednesday as its token price fell 19.26%, followed by an 18.07% decline for Lido DAO (LDO) and a 16.9% decline for Onyxcoin (XCN) .

The total cryptocurrency market cap is now $1.06 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 44.3%.