(Kitco News) – The week ended on a positive note for the crypto market as prices recovered from yesterday’s pullback despite continued enforcement actions by the SEC against various players in the crypto ecosystem and another round of hawkish comments from the Federal Reserve.
Traditional markets weren’t as lucky as a risk-off tone among investors on Wall Street, underperformance by tech stocks, and a strengthening dollar weighed heavily on asset prices. At the close of markets ahead of the long weekend, the S&P and Nasdaq finished in the red, down 0.27% and 0.58% respectively, while the Dow eked out a 0.39% gain.
Data from TradingView shows that Bitcoin (BTC) bulls were able to reverse Thursday’s downtrend in the early hours on Friday and push the top crypto to a daily high of $25,055 in the afternoon before it pulled back to support near $24,200, marking a 2.9% gain on the day.
BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
March Bitcoin futures traded lower near the market open “on profit-taking and a normal downside correction after hitting a contract high Thursday,” according to Kitco senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff, who observed that “Bulls still have the firm overall near-term technical advantage.”
“The path of least resistance for prices remains sideways to higher in the near term,” Wyckoff concluded.
Further insight into the performance of Bitcoin futures and what may come next was provided by market analyst Caleb Franzen, who highlighted the price action around the 200-day exponential moving average (EMA).
FYI, that’s a price of $23,610.
Futures are obviously closed over the weekend, so I’m marking that level on my spot BTC chart.
— Caleb Franzen (@CalebFranzen) February 17, 2023
And the overall sentiment of the crypto community was summed up nicely in the following tweet from Eight Global founder Michaël van de Poppe, who noted the quick pace of corrections when markets are in an uptrend.
Bad daily yesterday for #Bitcoin, but trend remains to be up.
Corrections are swift and shallow, buyers are eager to get in, while people continue to short.
Might see $22.6K, but the pattern to $30K seems likely.
— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) February 17, 2023
Altcoins finish the week off strong
The altcoin market had an overall positive day as the majority of tokens were in the green while a few over-achievers posted gains in excess of 20%.
Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360
The top performers included Filecoin (FIL), Hashflow (HFT) and Conflux (CFX), which posted gains of 27.47%, 25.22%, and 23.51%, respectively. Klaytn (KLAY) and Dogelon Mars (ELON) also deserve an honorable mention for gaining 19.5%.
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.119 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 42.6%.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
