Decentral Block Post

Bitcoin (BTC) remains pinned below the psychologically crucial level of $30,000 as cryptocurrency investors search for positive triggers. That has not stopped business intelligence firm MicroStrategy from adding 1,045 Bitcoin to its kitty, which has now swelled to 140,000 Bitcoin.

Even after the sharp recovery from November 2022 low, monitoring resource Material Indicators believes the current up-move is a bear market rally.

Usually, a bear market rally does not turn around until the last bear has thrown in the towel. This suggests that Bitcoin’s recovery may have some more legs before it turns down to shake out the weaker hands.

A survey conducted by financial services firm Brown Brothers Harriman shows that institutional investors remain interested in the cryptocurrency space despite the crypto winter. It found that 74% of institutional investors were “extremely/very interested” in adding exposure to exchange-traded-funds with cryptocurrency related exposure.

Will Bitcoin continue its northward march and rise above $30,000? Will that move boost the altcoins higher? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

Ether’s (ETH) price had been battling the $1,850 resistance level, but it broke through on April 4 when Ether rallied to a seven-month high above $1,900. Recently there has been a lot of speculation on Ether price catalysts. Let’s see if it’s possible to identify any fundamental factors behind the price movement. 

The upcoming Shanghai hard fork could be one factor in Ether’s recent bullish momentum. On April 12, the ability for validators to withdraw their deposits opens, giving staking participants freedom of movement but also creating a sell-off risk for Ether.

There are now 17.81 million ETH staked on the Beacon Chain, though some safeguards have been put in place to prevent a flood of Ether from disrupting the market. For example, because there is a daily limit of 2,200 withdrawals, the maximum daily unlocks are 70,000 ETH.

Scalability and selfish validator risks are still present

The upcoming Shanghai fork, however, does not address some of the most pressing issues currently plaguing the Ethereum network. Scalability continues to be a major issue for most users, as the average transaction fee has hovered around $5 in recent weeks, driving users away from decentralized applications (DApps).

Furthermore, the current consensus mechanism favors rogue miners who outperform other network participants, a phenomenon known as miner extractable value (MEV). They can quickly duplicate all winning deals from the mempool and execute their transactions ahead of others by ultimately deciding which transactions are completed in the block.

Ether’s (ETH) price had been battling the $1,850 resistance level, but it broke through on April 4 when Ether rallied to a seven-month high above $1,900. Recently there has been a lot of speculation on Ether price catalysts. Let’s see if it’s possible to identify any fundamental factors behind the price movement. 

The upcoming Shanghai hard fork could be one factor in Ether’s recent bullish momentum. On April 12, the ability for validators to withdraw their deposits opens, giving staking participants freedom of movement but also creating a sell-off risk for Ether.

There are now 17.81 million ETH staked on the Beacon Chain, though some safeguards have been put in place to prevent a flood of Ether from disrupting the market. For example, because there is a daily limit of 2,200 withdrawals, the maximum daily unlocks are 70,000 ETH.

Scalability and selfish validator risks are still present

The upcoming Shanghai fork, however, does not address some of the most pressing issues currently plaguing the Ethereum network. Scalability continues to be a major issue for most users, as the average transaction fee has hovered around $5 in recent weeks, driving users away from decentralized applications (DApps).

Furthermore, the current consensus mechanism favors rogue miners who outperform other network participants, a phenomenon known as miner extractable value (MEV). They can quickly duplicate all winning deals from the mempool and execute their transactions ahead of others by ultimately deciding which transactions are completed in the block.

Bitcoin (BTC) is still on track to hit $180,000 in its next halving cycle, a longtime market participant said.

In a new analysis published on March 3, Filbfilb, co-founder of trading suite DecenTrader, doubled down on his bullish BTC price outlook for the years ahead.

Filbfilb keeps faith in Bitcoin halving cycles

With BTC/USD approaching $30,000 but traders highly suspicious of the 2023 rally, sky-high BTC price predictions have been poorly received.

Two current $1-million forecasts, from ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood and former Coinbase executive Balaji Srinivasan, respectively, continue to divide opinion in the aftermath of the 2022 crypto winter.

Considering whether either has merit, Filbfilb turned to raw math to determine some likely macro tops and bottoms for Bitcoin after its next block subsidy halving.