(Kitco News) – The cryptocurrency market ended the week with a whimper as Bitcoin (BTC) continued to consolidate near support at $64,000 while most altcoins recorded slight losses.
The weakness comes as the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge – the core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index – showed that inflation remains higher than preferred, rising 2.8% over the prior year in March, above estimates for 2.7%
Stocks rallied despite yet another inflation reading coming in hotter than expected as the earnings reports from Alphabet and Microsoft spurred hopes of a Big Tech rally for investors.
At the closing bell, the S&P, Dow, and Nasdaq finished higher, up 1.02%, 0.40%, and 2.03%, respectively. The DXY gained 0.41% in response to the PCE report, and trades at 106.02 at the time of writing, while the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield fell by 88 basis points to 4.665%.
Data provided by TradingView shows that Bitcoin traded in a range between $63,300 and $64,825, with bulls and bears evenly matched for strength.
BTC/USD Chart by TradingView
At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $63,970, a decrease of 1.27% on the 24-hour chart.
Coin toss for Bitcoins future
“After a nice reaction from the $62.8k area yesterday, Bitcoin pushed back towards the Weekly Open at $65k,” said Market analyst CryptoChiefs. “This continues to be strong resistance as still we have not seen any 4-hour candle close above it. This is a big level to flip, but just above that we also have strong downtrend resistance.”
“The orange trendline has been resistance for almost 3 weeks, so keep an eye on the reaction if this is tested,” he said. “Any further move down from here, the DM VAL has yet to be tested.”
According to market analyst Castillo Trading, it’s currently 50/50 whether the crypto market will head lower or climb higher from here, but he will personally be buying any dips.
We are basically in a 50/50 spot here for both $BTC $ETH and rest of crypto market.
Some valid opinions on why market should go down, and some valid opinions on why market should go up.
If you are unsure, no trade is still a trade.
For me, I am bullish and I will add on dips.
— Castillo Trading (@CastilloTrading) April 26, 2024
“I am okay with this market boring participants out of it. That seems to be the point before we see big moves higher,” he added. “The fact we haven’t broken down is a sign of stability to me. Support is acting as support.”
And according to MN Trading Founder Michaël van de Poppe, the boring price action for Bitcoin could continue for the next three to six months, which means that the altcoin market could see an increase in activity.
#Bitcoin is still stuck in a range.
I don’t think we’ll see much happening from here for the coming 3-6 months.
Slow sideways, perhaps a grind.
Expecting way more from #Altcoins. pic.twitter.com/akiD1uhTCU
— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) April 26, 2024
Altcoins end the week lower
The vast majority of tokens in the top 200 recorded losses on Friday after the hotter-than-expected inflation reading prompted many traders to reevaluate their risk exposure.
Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360
Rising despite the widespread downturn was BinaryX (BNX), which gained 18.5% to trade at $1.06, while Helium (HNT) climbed 7.35%, and Neo increased 6.7%. A 14.3% pullback for cat in a dogs world was the biggest loss on the day, followed by declines of 9.8% for Arweave (AR) and Pendle (PENDLE).
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $2.36 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 53.4%.