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(Kitco News) – The forward-looking outlook for the cryptocurrency market continues to improve as Bitcoin (BTC) has managed to hold above support at $30,000 while the successful integration of the Shapella hard fork on the Ethereum (ETH) network has lifted the price of Ether above the psychologically important $2,000 level.
Stocks also made gains on Thursday as the latest data for March producer prices showed that inflation continues to cool, a signal to some investors that the Federal Reserve may be near the end of its aggressive rate-hiking campaign. At the close of markets, the S&P, Dow and Nasdaq were firmly in the green, up 1.33%, 1.14%, and 1.99%, respectively.
Data provided by TradingView shows that Bitcoin climbed from just above $30,000 in the early trading hours on Thursday to hit a daily high of $30,778 in the afternoon, where bulls ran into a wall of bear resistance that led to a pullback to $30,400.
BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The early move higher for BTC helped keep April Bitcoin figures prices near this week’s contract high, according to Kitco senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff.
“The market this week has seen a bullish upside “breakout” from the sideways trading range at higher levels, to restart a price uptrend,” Wyckoff said. “BC bulls have the solid overall near-term technical advantage and have the power to suggest still more upside in the near term.”
Following yesterday’s successful integration of the Shapella hard fork on the Ethereum network, the price of Ether surged from $1,910 to a high of $2,022 on Thursday afternoon, its highest price since August.
ETH/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The significance of the Shapella upgrade was touched on by market analyst Michaël van de Poppe, who tweeted, “The Shanghai upgrade is, possibly, a bullish outcome for the markets and #altcoins. Altcoins tend to wait for $ETH before they want to start moving upwards, they need confidence (including the investors). Instead of a bearish outcome, the event is a bullish outcome.”
This sentiment was echoed by Rekt Capital, who noted that a bullish move in Ethereum has historically preceded a breakout in the broader altcoin market.
$ETH is a Leading Indicator for smaller Altcoins
This is why the #ETH breakout may very well set the stage for an interesting period for other Altcoins in the coming weeks#Crypto #Ethereum
According to Poppe, the current market setup could see Bitcoin hit a high of $50,000 and Ether top out near $3,000 before a recession in the second half of 2023 leads to a widespread correction in the crypto market.
Generally, I think we’re going to have fun this quarter.#Bitcoin can continue the run towards $40-50K, #Ethereum to $2,800-3,000. #Altcoins getting more momentum as confidence is back in the markets (and they have a small window).
Recession in H2 -> correction on #crypto.
Rising FOMO in the altcoin market
All but three tokens in the top 200 were in the green for the day as the Shapella upgrade and a Bitcoin price above $30,000 have crypto traders starting to feel the fear of missing out (FOMO).
Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360
Space ID (ID) was the top performer on Thursday with a gain of 26.5%, followed by a 15.1% increase for Arbitrum (ARB) and a 14.2% gain for Aragon (ANT).
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.26 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 46.8%.
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