Bitcoin Tries to Retake August Price and Pulls Back; Rookie cryptocurrency climbs 36% in 24 hours

After a rally that was losing steam after the price made a 40% high in 2023, Bitcoin (BTC) felt fresh momentum Wednesday evening as it attempted to reach the $24,000 level, which would represent a 45% accumulated gain . away this year.

The cryptocurrency, however, touched USD 23,700 and fell to the USD 23,000 level it seeks to hold in the early hours of this Thursday (26). As of 7 a.m., it is trading at $22,986, up 1.5% over the past 24 hours.

The recovery of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market as a whole comes amid expectations of lower inflation in the US and amid economic data suggesting the economy will avoid a sharp recession.

Last night, BTC appears to have been hampered by poor results from tech giants Microsoft and Texas Instruments, as well as aerospace company Boeing – the companies’ shares fell sharply and contributed to a negative session on the Nasdaq.

“January’s stock market rally may be over and that could drag cryptocurrencies lower from here,” calculates Edward Moya, an analyst at exchange maker Oanda. “Bitcoin could be vulnerable to a decline towards the $20k level if a sell-off occurs. [o desempenho ruim das ações de] the technology on Wall Street will intensify in the coming days.”

Bitcoin’s new show of strength was enough to catapult several minor cryptocurrencies into a rally that mostly favored newcomer Aptos (APT), created by former employees of Meta (which owns Facebook) and financed by Silicon Valley funds, but which faced heavy criticism for launch failures in October.

After a full week of gains, APT is up 36% in the last 24 hours alone, hitting an all-time high of $19,000. The appreciation of the token reaches 145% in the last seven days and almost 450% since January 1st. According to experts, the increase was caused by the increase in activity in NFT markets running on the blockchain.

Other top cryptocurrencies today include Optimism (OP), Mina Protocol (MINA), and eCash (XEC), which are up between 15% and 26% in the past 24 hours.

Experts see the good momentum of altcoins (alternative cryptocurrencies to Bitcoin) as a signal that the sector’s bullish movement may not be over yet. Derivatives markets still suggest positive sentiment towards Bitcoin, according to CoinDesk analyst Glenn Williams.

“Bitcoin’s current structure is in ‘contango’, a condition that exists when the futures price exceeds the price in the spot markets,” he explains, noting that unlike traditional markets, this condition gives the cryptocurrency a favorable footing to continue to rise even after the 40% rally in 2023.

Check out the performance of the main cryptocurrencies at 7:00:

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Binance Stablecoin loses more space

Cryptocurrency exchange giant Binance’s stablecoin BUSD has extended its recent drop in market share due to the exchange’s mishandling of tokens: yesterday it emerged that the company had mixed client funds with the portfolio that contained the backing of synthetic assets.

BUSD’s circulating supply fell to $15.4 billion on Wednesday, down $1 billion in the past week and $2 billion in a month, according to cryptocurrency price tracker CoinGecko.

The most recent decline has prolonged the fall in the BUSD, which reached $22 billion in circulation in early December. On the other hand, the capitalization of stablecoins as a whole also declined, falling to $137 billion for the tenth consecutive month, according to a report by research group CryptoCompare.

The dominance of stablecoins in the cryptocurrency market has dropped to 12.4% from an all-time high of 16.5% in December, suggesting that traders are moving away from stablecoins for riskier assets, CryptoCompare said.

Tesla does not touch the position of Bitcoin

Electric car maker Tesla (TSLA) did not buy or sell any Bitcoin in the fourth quarter for the second consecutive quarter, the company said on Wednesday in its latest earnings report.

The value of its digital assets at the end of the quarter was $184 million, down from $218 million at the end of the third quarter due to asset depreciation. At the end of the third quarter, the price of Bitcoin was slightly below $20,000, while at the end of the fourth quarter, it was around $16,500.

Tesla also made no changes to its Bitcoin position in Q3, but surprised some investors in Q2 by selling $936 million worth of BTC, or about 75% of the position, to raise capital amid block uncertainty Covid-19 in China.

At the time, CEO Elon Musk said the company was willing to increase its exposure to Bitcoin in the future and that the sale “should not be taken as a verdict on Bitcoin.”

Overall for the fourth quarter, Tesla reported profit of $3.687 billion, beating analyst expectations.

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