Grayscale’s favorable court verdict, ETF hype fail to lift Bitcoin above US$28,000
Bitcoin fell 0.37% from Aug. 25 to Sept. 1 to $26,012 as of 5 p.m. Friday in Hong Kong. According to data from CoinMarketCap, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap has traded below $30,000 since Aug. 9. Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, fell 0.59% over the week to hit $1,645.
This week started with positive news for crypto investors after a U.S. court ruled in favor of Grayscale on Tuesday, overruling the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) earlier refusal to convert the company’s Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into one Allowing spot bitcoin lifted Exchange Traded Fund (ETF).
Over $80 million worth of bitcoin short positions were liquidated within an hour of Grayscale’s positive decision. Bitcoin surged to a two-week high of $27,322 on Thursday, two days after the decision, but remained below the $28,000 support level.
“The SEC losing both the Ripple and Grayscale cases has made the market optimistic that a spot ETF could be approved,” said Lucas Kiely, chief investment officer of digital asset platform Yield App forcast.
“While it’s likely that a Bitcoin ETF will emerge in the US at some point, Grayscale news won’t break Bitcoin out of a current wedge pattern that dates back to early 2023.”
Mike Ermolaev, founder of blockchain PR firm Outset PR and author of the Crypto Opinion with Mike Ermolaev interview series, said Grayscale’s legal victory could bring further regulatory clarity to the crypto industry.
“One of the main reasons this is a huge success is that it sets the stage for increased institutional adoption of crypto, with multiple applications pending from major US wealth managers,” Ermolaev wrote.
Another piece of positive news for the crypto space is Pantera Capital, a hedge fund with over $4.8 billion in assets under management, predicting that Bitcoin will rise to $35,000 in 2024 before the halving and $148,000 in 2025 -dollar would reach.
Pantera’s prediction may come true considering Bitcoin has surpassed its previous all-time high in every up cycle since the halving, said Nilesh Verma, crypto market analyst and founder of India-based consulting firm Crypto Granth forcast.
“If the trend follows this trend, Bitcoin has the potential to reach anywhere between $100,000 and $200,000 by 2025,” Verma wrote.
Adiel Barzel, the co-founder of Crypto Index, agreed that despite the recent correction in bitcoin prices, Pantera’s price prediction could come true.
“Even if bitcoin ends 2023 in the current price range or even slightly below, I’m still bullish [Pantera’s] Price prediction as as mentioned, significant upward movement is expected to start in 2024 after the halving,” Barzel wrote.
According to data from CoinMarketCap, the global crypto market cap stood at $1.05 trillion in Hong Kong as of 5 p.m. Friday, unchanged from a week ago. With a market cap of $506 billion, bitcoin made up 48.4% of the market, while ether, valued at $197 billion, made up 18.9%.
Notable transfers: TON, MKR
Toncoin (TON), the Open Network’s native cryptocurrency, was the biggest gainer among the top 100 this week, surging 20.91% to hit $1.73. The coin started gaining momentum Tuesday after the Ton Foundation announced Last week it announced that it would send out 1 million ton coins to reward users who locked their coins at Believers.ton, a community-run fund aiming to make the coin’s tokenomics more decentralized.
Governance token Maker DAO (MKR) was the second-biggest gainer this week, up 15.33% to $1,162. The token picked up steam on Thursday, a day after Maker DAO announced plans to launch SubDAOs in Korea, which will allow developers to set up their own decentralized autonomous organizations that can leverage liquidity allocation from the Maker protocol.
Next week: Can Bitcoin close above $27,500?
“Bitcoin price needs to close above the 200-week weekly moving average of $27,588 to maintain bullish momentum. Specifically, the $28,500 and $32,000 levels will serve as key resistance points, while the robust $25,000 support is likely to support the market,” Verma wrote, referring to the chart below.
Yield App’s Kiely said that bitcoin remains in a bearish pattern and could drop to $20,000 if the price breaks back below the $25,000 resistance level.
“Bitcoin is still the most likely to tumble from current levels – the longer bitcoin trades sideways, the further the likely price drop will be.”
“While briefly rallying towards the crucial $28,000 level – where the price first started to break in mid-August – bitcoin needs to trade steadily above $28,000-$28,600 for a shot at the crucial $31,000-32,000 level Having the US dollar where there is a bullish pattern could be restored,” Kiely added.
Aziz Kenjaev, financial analyst and director of business development at cross-chain liquidity protocol Entangle, also said that Bitcoin is likely to see another correction before clearing the key $28,155-$28,700 level.
“Based on Coinglass order book data, bitcoin has every chance to reach and breach the $28,700 wall, albeit with a slight pullback [movement] is required to take pending buy orders, which are fixed at $26,200-$26,500,” Kenjaev said, sharing the chart below.
On the macro front, investors will look forward to speeches from key members of the Federal Reserve, including a speech by Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Lorie Logan at Wednesday’s Lubbock-area community listening session and a speech by a member of the Federal Open Market Committee Federal Reserve on Thursday Michelle Bowman at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s 7th Annual Fintech Conference in Philadelphia.
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