Bitcoin’s price continued to rise over the weekend, at one point surging by more than $23,000 — the first time BTC has crossed the threshold since early August — before falling late Sunday.
The near market capitalization of the largest cryptocurrency has been trading above $22,750, which has been almost unchanged over the past 24 hours but up more than 8% over the past week. Bitcoin is up about 37% this year as investors have started to get knocked out, most recently the event Genesis Global Holdco LLC filed filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, albeit in an email to CoinDesk, Joe DiPasquale, CEO of crypto fund management firm BitBull Capital, has said that the rally is typical of the gains recorded in the first quarter of 2023 “following a long period of accumulation of short positions.”
But DiPasquale, meanwhile, wrote: “The market has been bullish, partly fueling the short-term tightening, adding that “Bitcoin and some altcoins are overheating and about to correct. “We wouldn’t be surprised to see Bitcoin return to $20,000 in the coming days.”
“In the coming week, market participants should pay close attention to the risks of a possible fall in the price of Bitcoin as well as the possibility of finding profits.”
Etherium followed a similar weekend path and recently rose to nearly $1,640, up about 1% from Saturday, at the same time. The second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market value is up about 4.5% over the past week and 35% since Dec. 31.
Most other major cryptocurrencies are in the light green, however AXS, the token of the Axie Infinity Gaming platform Axie Infinity , and YGG , the cryptocurrency of the money-making gaming association, Yield Guild Games, are up more than 38% and 18%, respectively. The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI), a measure of market performance, has said all of the market’s cryptocurrencies have risen slightly.
The weekend rally in the crypto market follows a positive Friday for equity indices when Nasdaq and The tech-heavy S&P 500 , which has a strong technology component, rose in turn 2.6% and 1,8%.
Traditional asset markets have taken an optimistic view of growing price evidence that inflation is easing without tipping the economy into a severe recession as well as hopes that the U.S. central bank will scale back its next rate hike 25 basis points (bps) compared to more recent levels of 75 and 50 bps.
Meanwhile, Signature Bank will not process cryptocurrency transactions larger than $100,000, according to a Bloomberg report citing a statement from exchange giant Binance. In a statement with Bloomberg, Binance said Signature, which is seeking to reduce its notoriety with the cryptocurrency market, will “no longer support any cryptocurrency exchange customers to purchase and amounts below $100,000 as of February 1, 2023.”
Binance says that this will be “the good choice of all cryptocurrency exchange clients of Signature” and noted that some users may “not be able to use a SWIFT bank transfer to buy or sell cryptocurrencies for/against USD” in smaller amounts.
In recent weeks, Signature, ranked among the most crypto-friendly banks, and other financial services companies have reduced their level of crypto notoriety, part of the growing fallout from the crypto exchange boom FTX. In December, Signature’s CEO said the bank would reduce the amount of crypto-related deposits from $8 billion to $10 billion.
Nearly a quarter of the New York-based bank’s total $103 billion in deposits, or about 23.5%, came from the crypto industry as of September 2022. But given recent “problems” in the sector, Signature will reduce that amount to less than 20 Signature’s Joe DePaolo said at an investor conference hosted by investment bank Goldman Sachs.
Despite the price change warning during the week, BitBull’s DiPasquale was more optimistic about the “risk appetite of the market” for cryptocurrencies.
“This is a positive sign for an eventual recovery, but we believe it may need more time and could materialize later this year,” he wrote.
Source: CoinDesk
