Bitcoin stagnates as market awaits catalysts for further growth

On Tuesday morning, the price of Bitcoin experienced a minor increase, with the cryptocurrency trading around $28,225 at the time of writing.

Data from CoinMarketCap reveals that Bitcoin's price fluctuated between $27,276 and $28,475 over the past 24 hours. On Monday, the crypto market showed mixed performance, with Bitcoin dropping by 0.17% while Ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies saw their prices rise.

Nevertheless, Bitcoin recovered with a 30.9% increase between March 10 and 17. This sharp rise was primarily driven by positive news from the US, where the government launched an emergency bank financing program (BTFP) to rescue depositors affected by the bankruptcies of Signature Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, and other financial institutions. The US Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve System announced that depositors would regain access to their funds, effectively signaling a return to quantitative easing and endless money printing policies.

It is this fundamental shift in US monetary policy that has caused Bitcoin to transition from a global bearish trend to a bullish one.

After a spectacular plunge in the first ten days of March, BTC managed to show significant growth by the end of the month as the situation in the banking sector stabilized. Notably, the past quarter proved to be the best for BTC since the beginning of 2021. From January to March, the leading cryptocurrency's price soared by 71.8%, making it one of the most profitable assets in the market.

The impending crisis in traditional financial markets has also contributed to the growth of the digital currency market since the beginning of 2023. Today, stocks and bonds are going through a challenging period, which is why there is a consistently growing desire among investors worldwide to invest in virtual currencies.

At the moment, Bitcoin is consolidating in the $27,000–$29,000 range, and crypto experts have not reached a consensus on its future value. The current sideways dynamics of the coin is due to the absence of significant drivers that could push BTC above the $29,000 mark.

Many analysts suggest that in the short term, the price of the leading cryptocurrency will remain between $27,900 and $28,900 due to the lack of fundamental factors that could move Bitcoin's value through the $27,000 mark.

Recently, Michael van de Poppe, the CEO of international IT company Eight, suggested two possible scenarios for future developments. According to the first scenario, Bitcoin's value could soar above the recent high of $29,000, followed by a sharp decline. Alternatively, if BTC loses the critical support level of $27,000, it will continue to slide down towards $25,000.

On Tuesday, the cryptocurrency market received strong support from the rise in key US stock market indicators on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average index increased by 1.26%, the S&P 500 index rose by 1.44%, and the NASDAQ Composite gained 1.74%.

Experts have noted a decrease in the correlation between cryptocurrency and stock markets this year due to Bitcoin's sideways trend. Bernstein, an American investment firm, reported this at the end of February. Last month, the correlation between BTC and the NASDAQ Composite index plummeted to 0.58 from 0.94.

According to analysts at Bernstein, the cryptocurrency market has recently been balancing between bullish and bearish trends, awaiting further driving factors. Its susceptibility to major news and events in the financial world has significantly decreased.

It's worth noting that in early 2022, analysts often highlighted the strong correlation between the US stock market and the digital asset market due to the tense anticipation of the geopolitical conflict in Eastern Europe and the Federal Reserve's next steps. In mid-2022, analysts at Arcane Research stated that the relationship between BTC and tech stocks had reached its highest level since July 2020.

Meanwhile, TradingView revealed that the correlation between the cryptocurrency and US stock markets in Q4 2022 stood at 70%.

Altcoin market

Ethereum, Bitcoin's main rival, began Tuesday with a sideways trend. At the time of writing, the altcoin was trading at $1,808, rising by 1.63% over the past 24 hours.

Out of the top-10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, all coins, except for XRP, demonstrated confident growth over the past day. Dogecoin achieved the best performance (+25.79%), while XRP was the worst performing (-2.98%).

Over the past week, Dogecoin also led the upside among the top ten cryptocurrencies (+34.93%).

According to CoinGecko,, in the last 24 hours, Dogecoin (+25.79%) topped the growth list among the 100 most capitalized digital assets, while Hedera (-4.88%) was the worst performing asset.

In the past week, out of the top 100 strongest digital assets, Solar performed the best (+185.72%), and Flare experienced the worst results (-5.92%).

As per CoinGecko data, the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies on Tuesday morning is above the critical level of $1 trillion, reaching $1.153 trillion. In the past 24 hours, this indicator jumped by 1.72%

Since its 2021 peak above $3 trillion, the crypto market has seen a significant drop, shedding over $2 trillion in value.

April has traditionally been a strong month for the digital gold. In the past 12 years, Bitcoin has recorded gains in eight instances and losses in just four during this time. The average decline has been 7%, while the average increase reached 24.3%.

Depending on how the market unfolds, Bitcoin could close April at around $26,400 or surge to approximately $35,300. It's important to note that the leading cryptocurrency faced headwinds in April for both 2021 and 2022, with an average slump of 9% across these two years.