Both bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) traded in a narrow range as the week began quietly for digital currencies.
The market is demonstrating little conviction in any direction, as evidenced by the trading volume for both falling below their respective, 20-day moving averages.
Despite selling less than 1% above their respective 50-day moving averages, BTC and ETH are still down 4% and 5% from the previous week.
After the asset basis of the cryptocurrency-focused bank Silvergate’s collapsed, negative sentiment persisted over the markets. The fear of contagion spreading to counterparties (such as Coinbase, Paxos, and Galaxy Digital) has rightly alarmed the markets.
Investors don’t appear to be fleeing markets, according to Monday’s comparatively flat buying, but rather seem to be reassessing the risk of crypto assets. If investors were leaving, the decline after the Silvergate news would be more obvious and involve a sizable increase in volume.
Looking at the daily charts for BTC and ETH, the reverse is evident, with little price movement and decreased activity.
The 20-day moving average of both Bitcoin and Ethereum will be a key indicator of the coming week, as well as how much each commodity reclaims (or fails to reclaim) that level.
After Friday’s drop, bitcoin was above its 20-day moving average for 16 straight days of trading. In 15 of the previous 16 days, ETH completed this. A re-capture of the 20-day moving average would imply that the market has become accustomed to and has forgotten about the Silvergate news. A decrease would imply the reverse.
Before this week’s testimony before the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees of the United States, markets may be quieter than normal.
As a result of worries about an overheated job market that has forced businesses to raise wages, observers of U.S. monetary policy anticipate Powell to reiterate the bank’s commitment to reducing inflation through hawkish interest rate increases.
On-chain action suggests that demand for cryptocurrencies continues despite the low trading volume.
Bitcoin Transfer Volume (BTV), a measure of the amount of new money flowing into bitcoin, has grown 79% so far this year despite lagging behind its yearly average. Moves upward suggest a rise in adoption and demand.