Bitcoin
and other cryptocurrencies ticked higher on Thursday but remained near levels that have dominated for weeks amid a historically stagnant period for digital asset prices. There are few signs a big swing is coming just yet.
The price of
Bitcoin
has risen about 1% over the past 24 hours to $30,279. The largest crypto has fluctuated between the psychologically important $30,000 level and $31,000 for much of the past month, with Bitcoin failing to consolidate a 13-month high near $31,700 notched last week after a pro-crypto court ruling.
“Bitcoin continues to waver around the $30,000 level,” said Edward Moya, an analyst at broker Oanda.
Unlike the stock market—where the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
and
S&P 500
have been marching higher—Bitcoin and other digital assets seem largely stuck, in what has become the quietest period for crypto markets since early January. The lack of momentum is tempering some expectations that Bitcoin, which almost doubled from late-2022 lows in the first six months of 2023, is on a bull market tear.
“We’re not in a bull market, and an influx of significant capital into the broader crypto space is just not there yet,” said Andrew Lawrence, co-founder of decentralized custody solution Censo. “We’re likely going to experience persistent chop with Bitcoin and crypto assets more broadly, meaning more of this trend of rallies followed by pullbacks.”
Investor attention is on the regulatory picture, especially in the U.S. While a federal judge delivered token issuer Ripple a partial win in a milestone case with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week—the catalyst for Bitcoin’s jump to a yearly high—key questions remain over regulatory clarity.
It’s likely that the outcome of new filings for spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, including from traditional financial stalwarts like BlackRock (ticker: BLK), will be the next major catalyst for cryptos.
“Legislative action, as it stands now, is still a ways away from coming to fruition,” Lawrence said. “Institutional money flowing into the digital asset space in the United States will likely not manifest in a major way until such legislative action comes to fruition. Certainly, an approval of BlackRock’s proposed Bitcoin ETF would bring a lot of capital into the space. But the digital asset industry is more than just Bitcoin.”
Beyond Bitcoin,
Ether
—the second-largest crypto—advanced less than 1% to above $1,900. Smaller tokens, or altcoins, were more buoyant, with
Cardano
climbing 4% and
Polygon
popping 5%. Memecoins were also upbeat, with
Dogecoin
up 3% and
Shiba Inu
ticking 1% higher.
Write to Jack Denton at [email protected]
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