Bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) fails to hold $63K and may remain limited
Bitcoin (BTC) rose during the European morning on Monday, peaking around $63,200 before retreating below $62,800. BTC may again be trying to climb above $64,000, of which there have been several instances this month, all of which have been sold. This behavior, together with transaction numbers plummeting, points to consolidation in the market and the possibility that bitcoin is limited for now. At the time of writing, bitcoin is 2.34% higher over the past 24 hours at $62,543. The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20), which measures the broader digital market, rose 1.1%, with companies like ETH and SOL showing more modest gains, trading just below $3,000 and $150, respectively.
Bitcoin’s price action since reaching new all-time highs in March has been characterized by lower lows and lower highs as a shift toward sales took hold in the market thanks to the profits of long and short term holders. “A failure below $60,000 could trigger a panic sell-off of sorts,” FxPro trader Alex Kuptsikevich told CoinDesk in a note. “The positive scenario, in our opinion, will become the main one with a rise above $65 thousand, correcting the price to the 50-day moving average and the reversal area in early May.” He added that downward pressure is likely it is related to the sale of assets by mining companies and concerns about stricter regulation of cryptocurrencies.
Japanese investment and consultancy company Metaplanet adopted bitcoin as a reserve asset to protect against the country’s debt burden and yen volatility. Metaplanet has acquired 117.7 BTC ($7.35 million) since April, mimicking MicroStrategy’s US strategy. Japan’s gross debt-to-GDP ratio currently exceeds 254%, the highest in the advanced world, according to data monitored by the IMF. For comparison, the US debt-to-GDP ratio exceeded 123%. The yen has depreciated 50% against the US dollar since the beginning of 2021. “As the yen continues to weaken, Bitcoin offers a non-sovereign store of value that has, and may continue, to appreciate relative to currencies traditional fiduciaries,” said Metaplanet.