Bitcoin Tests $25K Before Retreating
Bitcoin pushed bravely closer to $25,000 for the third time in four days before retreating nearer the more familiar ground.
The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was recently trading at about $24,400, roughly flat over the past 24 hours and slightly lower than where it started the weekend, although investors remained cautiously optimistic about recent economic indicators showing inflation waning and a lower likelihood of a recession. Bitcoin has climbed the past three weeks to change hands toward the upper end of a $20,000 to $24,000 range.
“BTC’s resilience above $20,000 did see bulls pushing for more upside, especially after a successful retest of that range. However, we are yet to witness the breakout above $25,000, which could see BTC moving quickly toward the $29,000-$30,000 range.”, – Joe DiPasquale, CEO of crypto fund manager BitBull Capital, wrote CoinDesk.
Ether was recently down about 1.6% over the previous day to trade at about $1,950. The second largest crypto by market cap behind bitcoin has been lately gaining ground at an even faster pace than bitcoin and topped $2,000 for a second consecutive day on Saturday before declining. Ether’s surge has come as the hotly anticipated Merge, which will transform the Ethereum protocol from proof-of-work to a faster, less energy-sapping model looms closer. Ethereum completed its third and final test environment network (testnet) merge, Goerli last Wednesday.
Most other altcoins were in the red in late weekend trading with OP and QUICK off about 8% and 7%, respectively, although popular meme coin SHIB was up over 30% and DOGE jumped more than 10%.