Bitcoin traded flat on Monday morning in Asia, staying just above the US$29,000 support level, while the token’s volatility rating hit a record low. Ether also treaded water, as other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies traded mixed with Solana leading the winners. Meanwhile, the Forkast 500 NFT index edged lower and U.S. stock futures moved up following losses last week. Investors now await another busy week of corporate earnings reports and U.S. inflation data.
Bitcoin flat, volatility low
Bitcoin edged down 0.03% in the last 24 hours to US$29,039.48 as of 07:50 a.m. in Hong Kong and down 0.78% for the week, according to CoinMarketCap data. The world’s largest cryptocurrency briefly traded below the US$29,000 support level over the weekend.
Ether also dipped 0.48% to US$1,826%, and moved down 1.89% over the past seven days.
“The most fluctuation in Bitcoin over the last week and a half has been around US$29,200. And this is interesting because during this time, the dollar has gone into a growth mode, and there has been significant profit-taking in the equity market,” wrote Alex Kuptsikevich, senior market analyst at London-based online brokerage FxPro.
“The market has been waiting for new signals, equally ready to return to growth or continue to fall,” Kuptsikevich said. “A drop below US$28,800 could quickly take the market to US$28,000 or even US$27,000. A rise above US$29,500 would open a quick path to US$30,000 and on to US$31,000.”
The Bitcoin volatility index by crypto options trading platform Deribit, which indicates the expected volatility for Bitcoin over the next 30 days, hit an all-time-low of 34.02% on Monday. Meanwhile, crypto analytics firm K33 Research noted on Friday that Bitcoin’s 5-day average volatility dropped lower than Gold, Nasdaq and S&P500 in the week ending July 30.
“This session is symptomatic of something we’ve seen playing out over the past few months but is even more pronounced now: nothing,” said Justin d’Anethan, head of APAC business development at Belgium-based crypto market maker Keyrock. “We haven’t seen BTC make a 1%+ move from open to close in what feels like forever.”
“It’s worth checking with oneself for any hint of complacency; crypto markets typically don’t reward inertia. Investors will find it very hard to position themselves, though, as positive news about crypto ETFs and engagement by institutions are balanced by regulatory woes and DeFi hacks,” added d’Anethan.
Other top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies were mixed as Solana led the winners. It gained 2.51% to US$23.18, but logged a weekly loss of 4.47%.
Dogecoin led the losers, falling 1.97% to US$0.07418, down 4.92% for the week.
The total crypto market capitalization dipped 0.12% in the past 24 hours to US$1.16 trillion, while trading volume gained little, adding 1.42% to US$20.62 billion.
