Cryptos climb higher in post-halving trading, stocks bounce back from worst week in 2024
(Kitco News) – Cryptocurrency prices trended higher on Monday after the Bitcoin (BTC) halving was successfully implemented on Friday, reducing the block reward to 3.125 BTC every ten minutes, meaning that only 450 new Bitcoins are minted daily.
Stocks also climbed higher to start the week following their worst weekly performance of 2024. The move higher came as traders pin their hopes on a slew of Big Tech earnings to reignite momentum in equity markets, which have struggled in the wake of high inflation readings that have pushed expectations for interest rate hikes later in the year.
At the closing bell, the S&P, Dow, and Nasdaq all finished higher, up 0.87%, 0.67%, and 1.11%, respectively, while the DXY was flat, and the U.S. 10-year Treasury note yield fell by 100 basis points.
Data provided by TradingView shows that Bitcoin bounced off a low of $64,525 in early trading on Monday and proceeded to climb above support at $66,000, hitting a high of $66,905 in the afternoon.
BTC/USD Chart by TradingView
At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $66,535, an increase of 3% on the 24-hour chart.
Bulls aim for $67k resistance
“Bitcoin has rebounded impressively, surging over 5% since last Friday,” said analysts at Secure Digital Markets. “The broader cryptocurrency market is also experiencing robust gains, particularly meme coins which are seeing double-digit increases. Should Bitcoin surpass the $67,000 resistance level, it could set the stage for a rally towards the year’s high of $74,000.”
Following the late-Friday halving, “The first block post-halving generated a notable $2.6 million from fees and rewards, with ViaBTC mining the landmark fourth halving block, which included a substantial 37.6256 BTC in fees,” they said. “Historically, such supply reductions have catalyzed significant price rallies for Bitcoin.”
The added focus on Bitcoin has brought extra attention to tokens within the Bitcoin ecosystem, the analysts noted, which is a sector that many have said will perform well during this bull market cycle.
According to market analyst Rekt Capital, Bitcoin is now in the post-halving accumulation phase. Once that is complete, the only phase left before the end of the bull market is the parabolic upside phase.
Post-Halving Re-Accumulation phase has begun (red)
Only one Bitcoin Halving phase left after that…
Parabolic Upside (green)$BTC #Bitcoin #BitcoinHalving pic.twitter.com/GpuqrOS9kE
— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) April 22, 2024
Some of the other tokens that have been performing well in the wake of the halving include Bitcoin layer-two solutions and other projects related to Bitcoin, such as ordinals.
“In the realm of Bitcoin’s layer 2 solutions, tokens like STX, native to the Stacks network, have outperformed Bitcoin following the anticipated halving event,” Secure Digital Markets said. “These layer 2 projects enhance scalability and transaction speeds by operating atop the Bitcoin blockchain, facilitating off-chain transactions. STX, for example, has climbed nearly 20% to $2.95.”
Regarding Bitcoin ETFs, “the market welcomed net inflows totaling $59.7 million on Friday, primarily driven by significant contributions from Fidelity and Blackrock,” they said. “Meanwhile, Grayscale has seen a reduction in outflows, marking the lowest level since April 10th.”
Bitcoin ETF flows in $. Source: Dune Analytics
“In contrast, the ETHBTC pair remains stagnant, hovering near its yearly low with an unclear future direction,” they added.
“On the equity front, stock futures are on the rise as Wall Street attempts to recover from last week’s sharp declines, particularly in the tech sector,” Secure Digital Markets said. “The S&P 500 and Nasdaq each endured significant losses last week, extending their losing streaks to six days.”
“Notably, the Nasdaq fell 2% on Friday alone, with major companies like Nvidia experiencing substantial declines,” they added. “These movements reflect growing investor recognition of the enduring high-interest rate environment.”
Altcoins climb the wall of worry
Altcoins climbed higher in Monday’s trading, with the vast majority of tokens in the top 200 recording gains while only a dozen coins saw losses of over 2%.
Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360
Ontology (ONT) was the biggest gainer, climbing 19.4% to trade at $0.474, followed by an increase of 16.4% for Pepe (PEPE), and a 16.2% gain for WEMIX (WEMIX). Jito (JTO) led the losers with a decline of 5.5%, while cat in a dogs world (MEW) fell 4.9%, and Saga (SAGA) lost 4%.
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $2.43 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 53.7%.
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