In early trades on Thursday, Bitcoin continued falling. At the time of writing, BTC quotes were hovering near $26,731.
According to CoinMarketCap, the maximum price of Bitcoin reached $26,829 in the past 24 hours, while the minimum price was $25,890.
Yesterday, the cryptocurrency market was dominated by bearish sentiment. As a result, BTC experienced a drop of 3.31% on Wednesday and closed the day at $26,251. The pessimism of Bitcoin was also adopted by the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, most of which also saw price decreases.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the cryptocurrency number one increased by 0.93% and ended the trading session at $26,869. On Monday, the price of Bitcoin decreased by 0.01% and closed the day at $26,872.
A key factor exerting pressure on digital assets on Thursday was the pessimism in the U.S. stock markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined by 0.77% at the end of Wednesday, the S&P 500 lost 0.73%, and the NASDAQ Composite dropped by 0.61%.
By the way, experts have noted a decrease in the correlation between the cryptocurrency market and the stock market in the past year, against the backdrop of the ongoing sideways movement of Bitcoin.
It was noted by analysts at Bernstein, an American investment company, in late February. Last month, the correlation between Bitcoin and the NASDAQ Composite index plummeted from 0.94 to 0.58.
According to Bernstein experts, the cryptocurrency market has recently been balancing between bullish and bearish trends, awaiting further catalysts. However, its sensitivity to important news and events in the financial world has significantly decreased.
In early 2022, analysts often emphasized the high correlation between the U.S. stock market and the virtual asset market, amid heightened anticipation of the geopolitical conflict in Eastern Europe and the Federal Reserve's future steps. In the middle of last year, experts from the investment company Arcane Research stated that the correlation between Bitcoin and technology stocks had reached its highest level since July 2020.
Meanwhile, economists from the analytical platform Trading View estimated that the correlation between the cryptocurrency market and the U.S. stock market in the fourth quarter of 2022 was 70%.
Altcoins market
Ethereum, the main competitor to Bitcoin, also started Thursday with a decline. At the time of writing, the altcoin was trading at $1,800. On Wednesday, the cryptocurrency decreased by 3.20% and closed the trading session at $1,789, falling below the important key level of $1,800. As for the analysts' forecasts regarding the near-term price of ETH, they suggest that the future trend of the altcoin will depend on whether the coin drops below $1,600 or rises above $1,950.
Meanwhile, among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, Ethereum (-3.20%) demonstrated the worst results over the past 24 hours, as mentioned earlier. In addition, all the digital coins on this list, except for a few stablecoins, traded in the red zone over the past 24 hours.
During the past week, Solana (-8.45%) was the worst performer among the top 10 cryptocurrencies, while XRP (+1.04%) demonstrated the best results.
According to CoinGecko, the largest aggregator of data on virtual assets, the biggest gainer among the top 100 most capitalized digital assets in the past 24 hours was Neo (+3.49%), while PancakeSwap (-12.81%) topped the list of declines.
Based on the results of the past week, among the top 100 strongest cryptocurrencies, the best performance was demonstrated by Kava (+17.66%), while the worst performance was seen by Sui (-19.74%).
Based on CoinGecko data, as of Thursday morning, the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies was above the important key level of $1 trillion, reaching $1.069 trillion. This indicator increased by 0.03% over the past 24 hours.
Since reaching its peak above $3 trillion in 2021, the market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market has lost nearly $2 trillion.
Forecasts of crypto experts
As for the forecasts from analysts regarding the near future of Bitcoin, most of them suggest a positive scenario and speak of the stability of the virtual currency.
Crypto experts anticipate that from the short-term perspective, the price of BTC will range from $27,000 to $28,500. Specialists are confident that Bitcoin has a good chance of reversing the bearish trend, but it will require strong catalysts, but there are none of them currently.
YouTube analyst Jason Pizzino is even more positive. He believes that even unfavorable events in the market will not be able to halt the rally of Bitcoin, and soon the coin may reach a range of $32,000 to $42,000.
Arthur Hayes at BitMEX shares the same opinion. He believes that regardless of the financial path taken by the Federal Reserve System and the US authorities, BTC will reach new highs. According to Hayes, this will happen whether there is high inflation and increased interest rates or decreased inflation and lowered interest rates.
In April, BTC experienced a loss of nearly 10%. However, it saw a significant increase of 22.6% in March, marking the third consecutive month of growth as the situation surrounding the banking crisis normalized.
During February, BTC ended with a 0.9% increase, reaching $23,200, and in the first month of 2023, it gained almost 40%, making January its best month since October 2021. Notably, January to March of the current year has been the best quarter for BTC since the beginning of 2021, and it has become one of the most profitable assets.
The key factor behind the growth of the digital currency market since the beginning of 2023 has been the impending crisis in the traditional financial market. Stocks and bonds are currently going through a challenging period, leading to an increasing global interest in investing in virtual currencies.