Altcoins, which have not yet attracted much media attention in recent months, could now experience an upswing due to the entry of retail investors if there continues to be positivity. If the market starts to turn negative, altcoins would be more affected by a price decline than Bitcoin, as the latter is institutionally backed.
Thought of the week
Digital Asset News
The Ethereum price has climbed above the psychologically important USD 4,000 mark for the first time since December 2021. Ethereum’s rapid price performance is being fuelled above all by the hype surrounding the upcoming “Dencun” update and hopes that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will soon approve Ethereum index funds (ETFs).
The Dencun upgrade is such an important driver because it is considered the biggest update for the Ethereum network since the merge. Dencun is set to include several Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), including the much-noticed EIP-4844, which would allow proto-thanksharding for the first time.
Proto-thanksharding is a mechanism that would enable the Ethereum blockchain to use blobs and thus significantly simplify the transaction process, as the new technology would allow part of the data to be stored outside the blockchain, which would ensure greater speed and lower costs for layer 2 chains and rollups based on Ethereum.
The Ethereum developers are targeting 13 March for the launch of Dencun on the mainnet.
Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart is also convinced that the SEC needs significantly less time to consider Ethereum ETF applications than Bitcoin ETFs.
Bitcoin whales are holding on to their assets and withdrawing their BTC from crypto exchanges, which suggests that major investors are expecting further massive gains. The current increase in the number of wallets held by large investors could also be primarily due to the authorisation of the new “direct” Bitcoin ETFs, which now account for over USD 52.5 billion in assets.
The fact that the whales are not selling even at current record prices suggests that they expect further gains. The assessment of the major investors is not only an interesting indicator, but also of practical importance, as the whales can directly influence the Bitcoin price in view of their large BTC assets.
Julio Moreno, chief analyst at the analysis firm CryptoQuant, pointed out the associated development on 7 March: “The whales’ Bitcoin assets are growing parabolically.”
Further evidence of the whales’ passive strategy can be seen in the key figures that show the movement of capital between major investors and crypto exchanges.
The corresponding data from Glassnode shows that the transactions of trading platforms in whale wallets have also “gone parabolic”.
Overall, this suggests that many new investors are currently investing in Bitcoin and that the major investors are hardly booking any profits despite the current record highs.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed its decision on the authorisation of options trading on spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This means that this additional door for more institutional capital in Bitcoin is closed for the time being.
In an official announcement on 6 March, the SEC accordingly extended the review period for the applications of the Cboe Exchange and the Miami International Securities Exchange regarding the introduction of options on Bitcoin ETFs.
The agency also delayed its decision on Nasdaq’s application to trade options on BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), stating that the delay will ensure that it has “sufficient time to review the application”.
The exchanges all applied to list Bitcoin ETF options on 25 January, and the SEC was already facing its first decision deadline on 10 March, as US securities laws give it 45 days to make or defer a decision on the matter.
Digital Asset Market
The majority of digital assets experienced another positive performance last week. Bitcoin reached new all-time highs several times, underlining the remarkable price gains since the launch of the Bitcoin Spot ETFs in the US. The ETF offered by BlackRock (IBIT) is the latest to reach the magical USD 10 billion mark under management and was the fastest ETF ever to do so. Inflows into the market are currently high almost every day, which means that high buying pressure meets relatively little selling pressure. This ensures that even without market-moving news, the market only knows one direction – up! Altcoins are currently following suit and are also experiencing strong upturns, which means that we are seeing a general “gold-rush mood”.
Over the week as a whole, the market is up around +10.7%.
The message for the coming week is: If the selling pressure does not increase, Bitcoin is likely to form new highs again!
Chart technology
From a chart technical point of view, Bitcoin is now at levels of new all-time highs. Technical analysis does not appear to be expedient at this time. In the coming days, a “healthy” development should be about finding strong support zones that do not lead to large sell-offs, which can prepare for further rises over the course of the week. However, should even stronger “FOMO” materialise, then this week could be one in which new highs follow almost daily. Attention should be paid to altcoins that are still “undervalued” if the market remains bullish.
The next price targets in the event of a positive development: ~$72,500, ~$74,000, ~$77,250
The next price targets in the event of a negative trend: ~$69,000, ~$66,500 ~$63,200
Trading idea
“Follow the trend” – existing positions should be managed with sensible risk management, new positions should be entered into with tight stop losses, some altcoins in particular could be of interest.
Weekly overview
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