Ether, Altcoins Remain Under Pressure Following Volatile Weekend

Ether ETH$1,950.42, the second largest cryptocurrency by market value, hovered just above the $3,100 mark in early afternoon U.S. hours on Monday, struggling to retain gains made since the crypto market's panicky selloff on Saturday.

While ahead 4% over the past 24 hours, ETH is lower by about 4% since rising to nearly $3,300 earlier Monday on word (as yet still unconfirmed) that multiple Hong Kong-based spot bitcoin and ether ETFs had been approved.

Downside pressure in bitcoin BTC$66,944.44 has resumed as well, with that crypto now modestly lower over the past 24 hours to $64,200 after earlier Monday nearly reaching $67,000.

The broader CoinDesk 20 Index is ahead 0.68% over the past 24 hours.

Alongside, Solana's SOL$80.97, gave up a large proportion of its overnight gains, dropping to around $140 from as high as $155 early Monday morning. That's also down from $175 reached on Friday.

Bitcoin, ether and the rest of crypto plunged on Saturday – with bitcoin dropping to the $61,000 area and ether below $3,000 – as Iran launched a bombing campaign on Israel, but the sector had regained some footing later in the weekend.

Singapore-based digital assets trading house QCP Capital said in a note to investors that historically, buying the dip on the outbreak of major geopolitical conflicts has been a profitable trade.

Ed Goh, head of trading at liquidity provider B2C2, said the firm has seen consistent buying in BTC, especially on the dip over the weekend. “57% of our flow has been to the buy side,” said Goh. He also added that altcoin activity remains high and they have seen a bias towards buying for alts.

Bitcoin’s halving event is fast approaching on April 19, which some traders are predicting could trigger a short-term “sell the news” reaction before and after the event.

Despite the setbacks, some altcoins continued with significant gains on Monday, with Ondo Finance ONDO$0.2424 up 15% over the past 24 hours while Render’s RNDR was aheadp 12% and GRT$0.02571 rose 9%.