Proactive Investors - BTC/USDT hit its stride yesterday, right after the US inflation read emerged hotter than anticipated- at 6.4% instead of 6.2%, in line with a mini rally on the S&P 500 index.
Theoretically, the markets should have gone the other way, given how investors tend to get spooked by the possibility of inflation-busting interest rates from the central bank.
Perhaps the markets expected worse. Either way, bitcoin closed the day nearly 2% higher at US$22,200, causing nearly US$56mln in short liquidations in the process.
BTC/USDT has since corrected back to US$22,100 in this morning’s session.
Bitcoin (BTC) reacted positively to US inflation data – Source: currency.com
The bulls’ target remains the same- get bitcoin back into the 23k-24k comfort zone, by way of surpassing the US$22,400 and US$22,500 resistance lines.
It should be doable, but the question is, how long will it take? The markets have shown stubborn resistance to bullish momentum ever since things cooled down after the January rally, so patience is probably going to be needed.
Ethereum joined the inflation rally with a 3.3% add on the ETH/USDT pair to an intraday high of US$1,570 before reverting back below US$1,550.
ETH bears seem to be in control this morning, with the one-hour chart chalking up red candlesticks as the day progresses.
Binance’s ETH/USDT order book shows a bit of buying support at US$1,500, or a worst-case scenario of US$1,450, while resistance is pinned to US$1,600.
Yet another Elon Musk rally
Musk rallies are a curious thing. The Tesla chief and Twitter autocrat famously sent Dogecoin (DOGE) to the moon back in July 2020 after jokingly Tweeting that the meme coin would surpass the global financial system.
Such is meme lord Musk’s influence over the crypto markets that even a wry nod to the Shiba Inu-themed cryptocurrency can pump the coin’s price on the market.
Which is exactly what happened after recently spamming his Twitter feed with pictures of his pet Shiba Floki, mocked up as the new Twitter CEO.
The new CEO of Twitter is amazing pic.twitter.com/yBqWFUDIQH— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 15, 2023
Undeniably cute, and also a boon for DOGE holders, with the DOGE/USDT pair adding a further 3% this morning, even as the markets started trending in the opposite direction.
The pair appears to have peaked at an intraday high of 0.088 and is starting to reverse; Musk rallies tend to be as fickle as they are curious
Altcoins seen higher
The CoinDesk Market Index added around 2.5% overnight, encouraged by a strong performance on Dogecoin, Cardano (ADA), Polygon (MATIC) and Litecoin (LTC), all of which added at least 5%.
Looking further down the board, Render Token (RNDR), The Graph (GRT), ImmutableX (IMX) and Oasis Network (ROSE) were among the top-trending altcoins, all having added double digits to their market capitalisations.
Global cryptocurrency market cap managed to stay above US$1tn after getting dangerously close, and was seen at US$1.03tn at the time of writing.
Total value locked across all decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols currently stands at US$47.8bn, having added 1.7% overnight.
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