Bitcoin (BTC) put in a solid performance on Tuesday, closing 1.9% higher against the US dollar to bring the world’s largest cryptocurrency’s spot price to US$29,700 by the end of the day.
Intraday highs saw the BTC/USDT pair briefly knock above US$30,000, until selling pressure sent the pair lower.
Bitcoin’s recent bullishness followed a sustained period of inaction from the benchmark cryptocurrency, with volumes and volatility at multi-year lows.
It also comes as US banking stocks take a beating following sweeping Moody’s downgrades in the small and mid-cap financial sector.
Investors may be hedging against the possibility of yet another mini-crisis in the US financial sector just months after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and other regional players.
There has also been renewed chatter around the prospect of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds being approved by the US regulators, with Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood and Galaxy Digital (TSX-V:GLXY) head Mike Novogratz expressing optimism of a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approval in the coming months.
For now, bitcoin has remained buoyant following yesterday’s surge, adding another 1k to US$29,800 in this morning’s Asia trading session.
US banks down, bitcoin up – Source: currency.com
Ethereum (ETH) added 1.5% on Tuesday to close at a spot price of US$1,856, before creeping higher to US$1,861 this morning.
Both bitcoin and ether have flipped into the week-on-week green on the back of these gains, albeit both at less than one percent each.
It’s a mixed bag in the altcoin space, with Ripple (XRP), Dogecoin (DOGE) and Cardano (ADA) still firmly in the red, while Solana (SOL) has shot up 3.5% week on week to bring its market capitalisation close to US$9.7 billion.
The Shiba Inu (SHIB) meme coin is far and away the strongest performer in the top-20 altcoin space, running up over 20% of gains over the past seven days to bring its market cap to US$5.89 billion.
Global cryptocurrency market cap currently stands at US$1.18 trillion, with bitcoin dominance heading upwards of 50.6%.
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