Bitcoin and Ethereum keep bull market strong, analysts expect volatility

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Bitcoin (BTC) has led the crypto market into a sustained bull run since January 2024, mostly due to the US SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) approving a host of Bitcoin ETFs (exchange-traded funds) on January 10, 2024. The investment instruments allow investors to gain exposure to the underlying Bitcoin without having to onboard a crypto exchange. Crypto has seen an upswing since, with altcoins following the lead of Bitcoin as usual. As of April 2, 2024, Bitcoin has seen a yearly increase of 134.36%.

The significant feat, as one notices, is achieved right as the crypto market has come out of a crypto winter brought on by the fall of FTX in 2022, which was further aided by the Terra-LUNA death spiral among other things.

Bitcoin and Ethereum, the undisputed market leaders, began trading almost flat during the first week of April, which can be attributed to the fact that quite a few major financial centres around the world had stayed closed during the prolonged Easter weekend. On April 2, Bitcoin trades a little above $66,400, decidedly below its newfound resistance around $70,000.

Meanwhile, Ethereum trades around $3,355, again below the $3,600 levels seen just on April 1.

As Messari data shows, Bitcoin’s volatility has seen some ups and downs throughout March, possibly due to the fourth Bitcoin halving due in 17 days. It did quiet down to some extent in the last week of March, but analysts expect higher volatility in the coming days- again, due to the Bitcoin halving event coming up.

It seems Bitcoin’s infamous volatility that can make and break fortunes overnight might make a return, at least for a while.

In the meantime, US Bitcoin ETFs continue to set new records, with BlackRock’s IBIT, Grayscale’s GBTC, and Fidelity’s FBTC being some of the most prominent names. The 10 US Bitcoin ETFs together hold about 851,593 bitcoins, amounting to 4.055% of the entire 21 million units strong Bitcoin supply. GBTC holds 335,153.8 of these, with IBIT and FBTC following at 252,011 and 144,704, respectively.

As the crypto bull market continues, users look forward to Ethereum ETF approvals from the SEC.

Shashank is the founder of yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist.
Twitter: @bhardwajshash