Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin slide as Wall Street exerts downward pressure on crypto markets.
Interest in the imminent ‘Bitcoin Halving’ has hit a new all-time high on Google Trends despite the declining prices of major cryptocurrencies, surpassing the previous peak in May 2020.
In the last 24 hours, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has plunged by over 4%, while Ether slid 3.54%, and Dogecoin is down by 5%. The global cryptocurrency market cap is relatively flat, now standing at $2.29 trillion as of 10:30 am EST, according to data from CoinGecko.
Eli Taranto, CEO of Digital Assets at EQIBank, told The Defiant, “If this is a bull run, we need a new bull. While Bitcoin was trying to decide which way to go, gold was on the up, moving a steady 7.5% on the month. What does this tell us? When SHTF, people want something to hold, not hodl. Bitcoin is a fantastic long-term asset, as long as there is electricity and the air defenses work.”
Bitcoin Miners To See Rewards Slashed By Half
The Bitcoin halving is a programmed event occurring approximately every four years (TK blocks), with the fourth halving set to take place later this week. As a result, Bitcoin miners, who are responsible for maintaining and securing the network, will witness a 50% reduction in rewards to 3.125 BTC per block.
Meanwhile, the spot market order book for BTC-USDT on leading crypto exchange Binance shows a concentration of bids below $60,000, far outweighing sell orders. This indicates strong demand below that level, potentially halting further price decline in the short term.
Stock Markets Continue To Bleed
The S&P 500 dropped for a fourth consecutive session on Wednesday as Nvidia
and other struggling technology names put downward pressure on the market. The broad index fell by 0.58%, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite slid by 1.15%.
Wednesday’s price action comes amidst a phase of weakness following the robust gains observed in the first quarter.
The stocks of Marathon Digital and Riot Blockchain, the two largest Bitcoin mining firms, have each experienced significant drops from their peak earlier in February, over 53% and 54%, respectively.
However, cryptocurrency analyst Kevin Svenson paints a different picture for Bitcoin. He remains optimistic about an upward trajectory despite the recent pullback.
Svenson said that as long as Bitcoin holds the mid to high $50,000 range as support, a broader parabolic trend remains intact. “Bitcoin can come down and wick into the mid to high $50,000 range, but as long as we bounce around that zone, it is still an exponentially higher low, which means it’s a parabolic trend, which means it’s still intact.”
Read More: thedefiant.io