Cryptos end the week strong as Bitcoin trades above the $24,200 support
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(Kitco News) – The week ended on a positive note for the crypto market as prices recovered from yesterday’s pullback despite continued enforcement actions by the SEC against various players in the crypto ecosystem and another round of hawkish comments from the Federal Reserve.
Traditional markets were not so lucky as a risk-off tone among Wall Street investors, underperformance by technology stocks and a strengthening dollar weighed heavily on asset prices. At the end of the markets ahead of the long weekend, the S&P and Nasdaq finished in the red, down 0.27% and 0.58% respectively, while the Dow gained 0.39%.
Data from TradingView shows that Bitcoin (BTC) bulls were able to reverse Thursday’s downtrend in the early hours of Friday and push the top crypto to a daily high of $25,055 in the afternoon before retreating to support near $24,200. which marked a gain of 2.9% on the day.
BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
March Bitcoin futures traded lower near the market open “on profit-taking and a normal downside correction after hitting a contract high on Thursday,” according to Kitco senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff, who observed that “Bulls still have the firm’s overall technical near-term. advantage.”
“The path of least resistance for prices remains sideways to higher in the near term,” Wyckoff concluded.
Further insight into the performance of Bitcoin futures and what might come next was provided by market analyst Caleb Franzen, who highlighted the price action around the 200-day exponential moving average (EMA).
FYI, it’s priced at $23,610.
Futures are obviously closed over the weekend, so I mark that level on my spot BTC chart.
— Caleb Franzen (@CalebFranzen) 17 February 2023
And the general sentiment of the crypto community was summed up nicely in the following tweet from Eight Global founder Michaël van de Poppe, who noted the rapid pace of corrections when markets are in an uptrend.
Bad daily yesterday too #Bitcoinbut the trend remains to be up.
Corrections are quick and shallow, buyers are eager to get in, while people continue to short.
Can see $22.6K, but pattern to $30K seems likely.
— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) 17 February 2023
Altcoins end the week strong
The altcoin market had a generally positive day as the majority of tokens were in the green while a few outperformers posted gains of over 20%.
Daily performance in the cryptocurrency market. Source: Coin360
Top performers include Filecoin (FIL), Hashflow (HFT) and Conflux (CFX), which posted gains of 27.47%, 25.22% and 23.51% respectively. Klaytn (KLAY) and Dogelon Mars (ELON) also deserve an honorable mention for getting 19.5%.
The total cryptocurrency market capitalization is now at $1.119 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 42.6%.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect the views of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an invitation to exchange goods, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept responsibility for any loss and/or damage arising from the use of this publication.
