First Mover Americas: Bitcoin, Ether Remain in Tight Price Range

This article originally appeared in First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily newsletter putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every day.

Price Point

Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) continued to trade in a tight trading range Tuesday with traders expecting prices to remain unchanged for another week as there are no potentially risky events or catalysts on the horizon.

Traders are focusing on next week’s Federal Reserve rate decision where the Fed is expected to hike by 75 basis points again. After that, traders are expecting the consolidation phase for cryptocurrencies to remain.

“Currently, I am leaning towards excluding a rally to the upside, and I expect the consolidation phase to stay,” Matteo Bottacini, a trader at Crypto Finance AG, wrote in a morning note. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we again test May/June lows for both BTC and ETH."

Bitcoin reached lows of $18,900 in May, and ether dropped to lows of $880 in mid-June.

In traditional markets, U.S. stock futures were little changed after the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached its highest closing level in six weeks on Monday.

Bitcoin market share hits two-year high

According to data from Kaiko, bitcoin’s market share of trade volume has hit its highest level in over two years.

The share of bitcoin volume versus volume for altcoin markets aggregated across 14 centralized exchanges climbed past 50% for the first time since 2020, according to a research report by Kaiko.

“Bitcoin dominance has increased sharply since April, which suggests that sentiment has turned predominantly bearish after the collapse of Terra’s ecosystem and the wave of high-profile bankruptcies over the summer,” the report stated.

CoinDesk Market Index

Sector classifications are provided via the Digital Asset Classification Standard (DACS), developed by CoinDesk Indices to provide a reliable, comprehensive and standardized classification system for digital assets. The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) is a broad-based index designed to measure the market capitalization weighted performance of the digital asset market subject to minimum trading and exchange eligibility requirements.

Chart of the Day

By Omkar Godbole

• The S&P 500's weekly chart has flipped bullish in a positive sign for risky assets, including cryptocurrencies.
• The chart tweeted by FS Insight's Matt Cerminaro shows a bullish divergence of the 14-week relative strength index (RSI), a popular technical indicator.
• Bullish RSI divergence occurs when the price makes a lower low, but the RSI makes a higher low, indicating a trend reversal higher.