Bitcoin (BTC) was close to hitting the $46,000 mark on Tuesday before topping out at a hundred or so dollars short, when selling pressure tossed the BTC/USD pair back below $45,000 by the end of the session.
Not ones to take defeat lying down, the bulls were on the front foot again this morning, sending bitcoin 30 basis points higher to $45,095 at the time of writing.
But 46k will be a difficult hill to surmount, given the strong wall of sell orders at this price point as evidenced on the Binance order book.
A positive news event could be the catalyst needed for bitcoin to break above the resistance point in the near term.
On that note, the deadline is closing in for the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to either approve or deny the raft of spot-bitcoin exchange-trade funds (ETFs) on the regulator’s table.
Odds are on approval for the applications submitted by Grayscale, BlackRock (NYSE:BLK), Van Eck, Ark Invest and more, but the market is eagerly anticipating confirmation.
However, given bitcoin’s exceptional performance in 2023 – around 160% on the BTC/USD pair – the possibility of a ‘sell the news’ situation has emerged.
Bitcoin is more than 50% higher over six months – Source: tradingview.com
Ethereum (ETH) hit a peak of $2,430 on Tuesday before being sent around 350 basis points lower to close the session at around $2,350.
ETH/USD has enjoyed a slight recovery this morning, with the pair creeping up to $2,366 at the time of writing.
Most of the blue-chip altcoins dipped overnight, with Solana (SOL) losing 5.5% and ending its brief stint as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency in place of Binance’s BNB token.
Avalanche (AVAX) also dipped around 5%, while Cardano (ADA), Dogecoin (DOGE), Ripple (XRP) and Polkadot (DOT) fell in the low single digits.
Global cryptocurrency market capitalisation currently stands at $1.73 trillion, with bitcoin dominance at around 54.4%.
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