Market Wrap: Altcoins Outperform as Sentiment Improves; Bitcoin Within 'Value Zone'

Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptos traded higher on Tuesday as bearish sentiment over the past week appears to be fading.

Most alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) outperformed bitcoin, suggesting a greater appetite for risk among traders. For example, THORChain's RUNE token rallied by 11% over the past 24 hours, compared with a 2% rise in BTC over the same period. Meanwhile, decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens such as AAVE and EOS rose more than 7% on Tuesday.

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Sentiment is also starting to improve among crypto traders, evidenced by a slight uptick in the bitcoin Fear & Greed Index on Tuesday. Still, some buyers remain on the sidelines as BTC trades in a tight range between $32,000 and $46,000.

Stocks were also higher on Tuesday as the 10-year Treasury yield rose toward 2.9%, a level not seen since late 2018. Gold, a traditional safe haven asset, traded lower over the past 24 hours, indicating a slight risk-on tone in global markets.

Latest prices

●Bitcoin (BTC): $41322, +1.25%

●Ether (ETH): $3098, +2.75%

●S&P 500 daily close: $4462, +1.61%

●Gold: $1950 per troy ounce, −1.67%

●Ten-year Treasury yield daily close: 2.91%

Bitcoin, ether and gold prices are taken at approximately 4pm New York time. Bitcoin is the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (XBX); Ether is the CoinDesk Ether Price Index (ETX); Gold is the COMEX spot price. Information about CoinDesk Indices can be found at coindesk.com/indices.

Bitcoin's value zone

A large amount of bitcoin supply has been accumulated between the $38,000 and $45,000 price range, according to blockchain data compiled by Glassnode. Typically, price "value" zones, areas with a large amount of trading activity, precede strong breakouts or breakdowns in price.

"Despite an additional two months of sideways consolidation, a large proportion of the market appears unwilling to spend and sell their coins, even if their coins are held at a loss," Glassnode wrote in a blog post. That suggests price-insensitive traders hold much of bitcoin's supply above the $40,000 price level.

So far, long-term price momentum has deteriorated, so it remains to be seen if traders will continue to find attractive buying points between $35,000 and $42,000. From a technical perspective, a breakout or breakdown of the current price range is needed to confirm a shift in trend.

The chart below shows a volume profile of bitcoin's year-long price range. Currently, the midpoint indicates short-term support at $38,590. High-volume nodes around $32,000 and $50,000 define the most recent price range, which typically coincides with prolonged periods of accumulation or distribution.

The recent decline in buy volume relative to sell volume, however, could indicate a lack of conviction among bitcoin buyers. If a breakdown of the current range occurs, secondary support is seen at $27,000 and $23,500.

Altcoin roundup

• Terra’s LUNA surges 11% as UST becomes third-largest stablecoin: Terra’s LUNA outperformed the wider crypto market, rising by as much as 11% over the past 24 hours. The move comes after a nearly 37% drop in the first two weeks of April following lifetime highs of $120 earlier this month. The spike comes as Terra's algorithmic stablecoin UST toppled Binance USD (BUSD) to become the third-largest stablecoin by circulation, during the later hours of Monday. Read more here.
• BNB chain burns over $770M worth of BNB tokens: BNB Chain will burn over 1.8 million binance coins (BNB) in its first burn this quarter, data from trackers shows. The burn was executed on BNB Chain at 08:23:05 UTC on Tuesday. Read more here.
• Ethereum Foundation holds $1.3B in ether, $300M in non-crypto investments: The Ethereum Foundation held more than $1.6 billion in treasury assets at the end of March, the non-profit said Monday. Almost $1.29 billion was held in ether (ETH), the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. That represented over 0.297% of the total ether supply as of March 31. Some $11 million was held in other cryptocurrencies. Read more here.

Relevant reads

• Listen: With bitcoin’s bounce stalling and a look at the common ancestor between bitcoin and today’s inflation, CoinDesk’s Markets Daily is back with the latest news roundup.
• Bitfinex Exchange Back Online After ‘Issues’ Cause 2-Hour Outage: The platform underwent maintenance after trading was halted.
• IMF Says Capital Control Powers Should Include Crypto: The financial stability watchdog is the latest to worry that digital assets are being used to evade sanctions on Russia.
• Hut 8 in Deal to Become 100% Self-Mining Company: The digital asset miner will buy out all hosted rigs at its Medicine Hat mining facility in Alberta.
• Robinhood Agrees to Acquire UK Crypto Platform Ziglu: Ziglu was approved to offer crypto services in the U.K. by the Financial Conduct Authority in 2020.
• Privacy-Focused Monero Plans Hard Fork in July; XMR Surges 11% on ‘Monerun’: The hard fork would see version 15 of Monero launched with several upgrades for improved security.

Other markets

Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day higher.

Top Gainers

Asset Ticker Returns Sector EOS EOS +9.5% Smart Contract Platform Solana SOL +4.7% Smart Contract Platform Filecoin FIL +4.2% Computing

Top Losers

Asset Ticker Returns Sector Bitcoin Cash BCH −0.1% Currency Stellar XLM −0.1% Smart Contract Platform

Sector classifications are provided via the Digital Asset Classification Standard (DACS), developed by CoinDesk Indices to provide a reliable, comprehensive, and standardized classification system for digital assets. The CoinDesk 20 is a ranking of the largest digital assets by volume on trusted exchanges.