BTC/USD stagnates under $50,000, ETH/USD sinks under $1,500

BTC/USD

BTC/USD made a bullish attack at 50,000 early on 2nd March, but it was swiftly curbed by the mark, with the pair finding itself under 48,000 at the end of the day. Buying pressure was still there, but more buying volumes might be required for a pullback above 50,000 to come through.

BTC/USD opened 2nd March at 49,720 as per the CEX.IO exchange rate. The pair edged above 50,000 in the first hour but found itself at 49,556 at the hour’s close. An intraday retracement took the pair to 48,354 at 08:00 UTC. Having risen above 49,000 between 08:00 and 09:00 UTC, the pair continued sideways until 16:00, clinging to the 49,000 handle. By 16:00 UTC, a head-and-shoulders-looking pattern had formed and was confirmed with a bearish candlestick between 16:00 and 17:00 UTC that landed on 47,500 and the 50-period hourly SMA.

The moving average did support the price, signaling some lack of confidence of the bears and the presence of buying appetite. The pair continued trending mildly upwards, consistently leaning on the 50-period hourly moving average until 19:00 UTC, but slipped below it at 20:00 UTC.

The failure of the breakthrough above 50,000, should extend the expectations of an exit out the horizontal channel between 43,000 and 50,000. The update on corporate and institutional holdings from Bitcointreasuries.com on the day showed that the cumulative figure had reached 1.36 million BTC worth around $65 billion at the time. This is an apparent sign of continuing demand for Bitcoin from high-profile investors. Considering their traditional long-term investment fashion, their demand might play a key role in Bitcoin’s financial maturity.

ETH/USD

ETH/USD spent most of the trading session of 2nd March between 1,540 and 1,580. Selling pressure increased at 16:00 UTC, and the trading pair slipped to under 1,500 in the day’s later hours. 

ETH/USD started 2nd March at 1,572 and produced a sharp spike to 1,600. But the buying volumes were too small, and the pair quickly got back to 1,570, continuing sideways between 1,540 and 1,580 for the most part until 16:00 UTC. Between 16:00 and 17:00 UTC, ETH/USD broke down below 1,540 and closed the hour at 1,503.5 based on the CEX.IO exchange rate. The pair was consistently heading down afterwards and slipped to 1,460 – 1,480 in the period between 20:00 – 23:00 UTC.

Meanwhile, The Block shows that Ethereum miners set a new record for monthly earnings in February 2021, having earned $1.37 billion during the 28-day-long month. Of those, $772.78 million were transaction fees and $644.4 million were block rewards, which is the first precedent of transaction fees dominating block rewards in Ethereum miners’ revenues on a monthly basis in all of Ethereum’s history.

This shows how much demand is going on for Ethereum as a means of transfer of value, the DeFi market probably being the biggest driver of that demand, as its market capitalisation grew to 71.87 billion, according to CoinGecko, as of 2nd March. Also, the anticipation of the transition of Ethereum to the PoS Beacon Chain is heating up demand for Ether as a means of passive income: according to The Block, the ETH 2.0 deposit contract had 3.33 million ETH on 2nd March.

ETH/USD might have found a resting point between 1,460 – 1,570 and may continue sideways on shrinking volatility for a while before taking a turn outside this corridor. The 1,392 daily support level can be a source of resurging buying pressure for ETH/USD in the scenario of a gradual decline.