This week’s market started poorly as Bitcoin had a little decline of more than 4% after the unexpected statement from OPEC+ that they would reduce their output by 1.16 million barrels beginning in May. After the news, crude oil prices increased by more than 8%, raising worries that a higher oil price will continue to restrain global economic development.
For the previous seven days, the performance of the altcoin market has been lopsided, with some currencies vastly outperforming and others finding it difficult to stay up.
As Elon Musk posted a picture of the Dogecoin logo instead of the Twitter logo, $DOGE increased by 30%. Twitter users can now see the Dogecoin logo on the top left of the Twitter home screen feed online.
On Monday, $ETH has been experiencing strong trading and has successfully broken over the $1840 resistance level, which it had repeatedly encountered since mid-March.
In the first quarter of 2023, Bitcoin outpaced the majority of asset classes, including various cryptocurrencies, such as ETH. Bitcoin has gained more respect as a trustless asset—for which it was created—following the demise of Signature Bank, Silvergate Bank, and Silicon Valley Bank.
In the first quarter, ETH underperformed BTC as the Shanghai Upgrade, set for April 12, draws near. Investors anticipate that there may be significant ETH withdrawals after the upgrade, which has put pressure on the price of ETH. Last week, all staked ETH were selling at a discount of more than 1% to ETH.
Stablecoin swap (-1.6%) activity has slowed down overall, while crypto to-crypto (+1.8%) activity has accelerated with significant activity led by interest-generating altcoins.
More people are preparing to increase their stablecoin holdings as stablecoins (BUSD, USDC, and TUSD) gain ground and grind toward or at 1:1 (Crypto to Stablecoin +1.2%), which is to be expected given the dearth of market-energizing news in the stablecoin space.
While looking macro
The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index increases 0.3% for the month to last Friday (03/31/23), below expectations of 0.4% and the previous month’s 0.5%.
. A lower-than-expected result lights up the gasoline for another bull run since the Fed regularly monitors this index and uses it as a proxy to assess inflation. Since US Treasury rates were falling, all risky assets were rising. After the information became known, Bitcoin grew by almost 3% before being rejected at the 28,600 level.
Crude oil prices increased by almost 8% after OPEC+ unexpectedly announced a 1.16 million barrel production reduction beginning in May. This announcement casts doubt on the strength of the global economy’s expansion.
Monday, April 3: Following the Bank of Canada’s (BoC) decision to halt rising interest rates in March, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) chose to keep the cash rate aim at 3.60%. The AUD/USD declined 0.8% to 0.6722.
On Tuesday, April 4th, the US released JOLTs Job Openings numbers for February, which came in at 9.931 million, behind both the expected 10.40 million and the 10.563 million from January. Job creation has slowed down and job losses have increased, according to statistics. It raised concerns that the Fed’s rate hike is slowing the economy’s expansion and that the move to fight inflation could lead to a recession. When the market’s attitude grew more cautious, the price of gold broke beyond the 2,000 barriers and concluded the day at 2,020 USD per ounce.As the market continued to regard bitcoin (BTC) as a safe-haven asset more similar to gold than previously believed, its value increased.
