Market Wrap: Bitcoin Stuck Around $58K; Monthly Volatility Drops to 3-Month Low

• Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $58,386.28 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Climbing 1.11% over the previous 24 hours.
• Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $57,486.10-$58,880.82 (CoinDesk 20)
• BTC trades between its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a sideways signal for market technicians.

Bitcoin’s price action has been less exciting as the No. 1 cryptocurrency by market capitalization traded in a narrow range between $55,500 and $60,000 over the past week.

Bitcoin’s spot trading volume on the eight, mostly-U.S. crypto exchanges tracked by CoinDesk drifted even lower on Friday from the previous day, slightly above $1 billion at the time of writing.

The lighter volume also suggests retail traders in the U.S., unlike in 2020, are not as active with their latest round of $1,400 stimulus checks from the federal government.

Bitcoin’s struggle to retest a key resistance level at $60,000 has “dampened” market sentiment, said Hunain Naseer, senior editor at OKEx Insights.

“Until bitcoin breaks $60,000 and consolidates above it, we are likely to continue seeing traders buy weakness and sell on strength instead of holding assets for longer periods and waiting for a bigger move,” Naseer told CoinDesk.

While bitcoin may have failed to break above $60,000 a few times, it has nonetheless found strong support at the $55,000 price level the past week.

What’s more, it appears that bitcoin miners have also started accumulating their coins for the first time since December, according to blockchain data at Glassnode, a bullish sign for the market.

Meanwhile, the BTC/USD pair’s one-month realized volatility has fallen from a peak of 114% in February to about 62%, the lowest level since the end of November.

Ether and altcoins

• Ether (ETH) trading around $2,078.08 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Climbing 0.98% over the previous 24 hours. 
• Ether’s 24-hour range: $2,045.05-$2,100.23 (CoinDesk 20)
• Ether trades between its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a sideways signal for market technicians.

Ether’s recent price gains seem to have cooled down in tandem with bitcoin’s lackluster performance lately.

The star of the alternative cryptocurrencies (“altcoins”) on Friday was again xrp (XRP). The token used in Ripple Labs’ payments received another endorsement from analyst Peter Brandt, who said XRP could hit new all-time highs in the coming months.

The token has rallied in recent weeks, erasing losses suffered in December when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a case against Ripple Inc. charging the company raised $1.3 billion by selling XRP as an unregistered security. Several crypto exchanges delisted XRP from their platforms after the lawsuit was filed.

Other digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mostly flat or in the green Friday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):

• 0x (ZRX) + 23.23%
• omg network (OMG) + 11.47%%
• tezos (XTZ) + 10.15%
• cosmos (ATOM) + 5.85%
• kyber network (KNC) + 5.13%

Notable loser:

• chainlink (LINK) - 1.56%

Other markets

Equities:

• Asia’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.20% higher.
• The FTSE 100 in Europe was down by 0.38%.
• The S&P 500 in the United States closed in the green 0.77%.

Commodities:

• Crude oil (WTI): -0.42% to $59.35/barrel.
• Gold: -0.73% to $1742.65/ounce.

Treasurys:

• The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield climbed Friday, jumping to 1.658%.