Bitcoin (BTC) started the week on the front foot, climbing close to $35,200 in early Monday trades following a net-positive weekend trading session.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency reacted positively to Friday’s underwhelming US data reads, which showed the unemployment rate creeping higher than expected with 150,000 new jobs added in October, nearly half of the September print.
Signalling a cooldown of the US economy, these sluggish figures have fortified the case for a dovish turn on the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy.
Bitcoin’s profile of a risk-on asset class could potentially support bullish price action amid the mounting prospect of an end to Fed interest rate tightening.
There are, however, concerns that bitcoin trading volumes remain too deflated to sustain its elevated spot price, despite the prospect of spot-bitcoin exchange-traded funds soon coming the the stock market.
These bitcoin ETFs would undoubtedly drive up market liquidity, but regulatory hurdles are still in the way.
Despite the uncertainty, the BTC/USDT pair remains in a strong position, having rallied over 110% in 2023 so far.
Bitcoin more than doubles year to date – Source: tradingview.com
Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency on the market, pulled ahead over the weekend, adding more than 3.3% from Friday’s close to this morning’s trading price of $1,895.
Ether was struggling to break away from the 200-day moving average trend line until the bulls finally took command of the market.
Solana rally comes to an end, Ripple steps up
Elsewhere in the blue-chip altcoin space, Solana (SOL)’s solid recent price action has seen a substantial retraction, as fears of a major sell-off from the FTX administration estate mount.
FTX administrators, who took control of the Sam Bankman-Fried-founded cryptocurrency exchange after collapsing last November, have moved approximately $102 million in SOL tokens onto Binance and Kraken, CoinDesk today reported.
This is a sign of potential selling pressure heading the supposed Ethereum killer’s way.
At the time of writing, SOL/USDT was trading slightly higher than $40.
Ripple (XRP) took Solana’s place as the top-trending altcoin, having surged over 7% on Sunday followed by another 6% this morning.
XRP developer Ripple Labs appears on the edge of victory in its protracted securities dispute with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), boding well for the token’s future.
The global cryptocurrency market capitalisation currently stands at $1.33 trillion, with bitcoin dominance at around 52.8%.
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