Market Wrap: Altcoins Outperform as Ether Rises Toward $4K

Alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) were in the spotlight on Thursday as bullish sentiment returned to crypto markets. Bitcoin (BTC) continued to stabilize near $46,000, near its 200-day moving average – a key technical support level that, if broken, could lead to further selling pressure.

For now, bitcoin appears to be oversold, and was down about 2% over the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, ether (ETH) was roughly flat over the past 24 hours, compared with a 4% rise in Solana’s SOL token and a 7% rise in Terra’s LUNA token over the same period.

Some analysts say the bullish market response to Wednesday’s Fed decision could be short-lived. The U.S. Federal Reserve announced an accelerated winding down of asset purchases, which was widely expected among market participants.

“Long-term investors should not lose sight of the natural tightening of financial conditions because of these moves, which will slowly but persistently reduce demand for risky assets,” Alex Kuptsikevich, analyst at FxPro, wrote in an email to CoinDesk. “The main risk for the crypto market is that we have seen a monetary regime switch in the last couple of months, which promises to take some of the demand for crypto away.”

Latest prices

• Bitcoin BTC$88,518.75: $47,944, -2.80%
• Ether ETH$2,973.33: $4,022, -1.04%
• S&P 500: $4,668, -0.88%
• Gold: $1,799, +1.10%
• 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.43%

Ether holds support

Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, briefly touched $4,000 on Thursday after several weeks of choppy trading. The cryptocurrency is down about 4% over the past month, compared with a 20% decline in BTC.

ETH has support around its 100-day moving average (currently at $3,900), which could stabilize short-term pullbacks. The relative strength index (RSI) on the daily chart is also the most oversold since late September, which preceded a price rally. Still, similar to bitcoin, upside appears to be limited around the $4,800 ETH all-time price high.

Altcoin roundup

• Institutions eye Avalanche: Crypto custody firm BitGo will support AVAX, the native token of Avalanche, in the latest sign of institutional interest in the high-speed blockchain. The news from BitGo comes after Bank of America analysts said Avalanche could be a viable alternative to Ethereum for decentralized finance (DeFi), NFTs and gaming. It also opens the door for BitGo clients, including exchanges Bitstamp and Bitbuy, to offer AVAX to their users, CoinDesk’s Eli Tan reported.
• Badger’s restitution plan tests limits of DAO governance: After a devastating $130 million hack, BadgerDAO is moving forward with the first steps in an ambitious restitution plan that may be among the most complex in decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) history, CoinDesk’s Andrew Thurman reported. BadgerDAO’s effort to compensate victims may be the largest of its kind yet.
• Melania Trump’s NFT: Former first lady Melania Trump bemused the Twittersphere on Thursday with the announcement that she’s launching her own NFT platform. Her debut non-fungible tokenhttps://melaniatrump.com/nft release is titled “Melania’s Vision,” and features watercolor-style artwork of her own cobalt blue eyes, “providing the collector with an amulet to inspire,” according to a press release.

Relevant news

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• Coinbase Backs NYSE Arca’s Push for Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Conversion to ETF

Other markets

Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day lower.

Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):

• Solana SOL$125.75: +1.24%, Sector: Smart Contract Platform

Notable losers:

• ICP$2.8313: -5.01%, Sector: Computing
• DOT$1.8140: -4.18%, Sector: Smart Contract Platform
• ADA$0.3424: -4.02%, Sector: Smart Contract Platform

Sector classifications are provided via the Digital Asset Classification Standard (DACS), developed by CoinDesk Indices to provide a reliable, comprehensive, and standardized classification system for digital assets. The CoinDesk 20 is a ranking of the largest digital assets by volume on trusted exchanges.