Bitcoin Below $24K, Ethereum, Dogecoin Slide: Analyst Says In 'Complete Awe' Of Apex Crypto, Predicts 30% Upside

Major coins traded red on Thursday late evening, as the market capitalization dropped by 2.69% in the last 24 hours to $1.08 trillion.

What Happened: The largest cryptocurrency by market value Bitcoin BTC/USD took a sharp turn Thursday, dropping from $25,000 to a low of $23,736.

Ethereum ETH/USD followed in similar footsteps to Bitcoin, experiencing a meteoric rise to surpass $1,700 for two consecutive days before experiencing a pullback. ETH was changing hands at $1,657 down 1.88% in the last 24 hours.

Dogecoin DOGE/USD was down 3.76% in the last 24 hours, trading at $0.086. 

U.S. equity markets reacted negatively to the latest PPI data, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropping by 1.78%, and the S&P 500 down by 1.38%.

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Bitcoin saw a surge in value on Thursday, but investors soon began to reconsider their decision in light of increasing concerns about inflation, and the Federal Reserve monetary policy.

In top news, a New York judge presiding over the criminal fraud case against Sam Bankman-Fried has issued a warning that he may revoke the bond if Bankman-Fried continues to defy his bail conditions. Decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Platypus Finance was recently hit with a flash-loan attack, leading to a potential loss of $8.5 million. 

Analyst Notes: “A major move in Bitcoin is upon us.  There has been a major wave of institutional money coming into the exchanges over the past week, $1.6 billion according to data from Lookonchain. A lot of that money is leaving stablecoins, including Circle-issued USD coin. The fate of stablecoins will be decided in the near future, but many are not expecting regulators to crush the entire space. Everyday that passes that we don’t see Bitcoin break, sellers become less patient.  Bitcoin is showing strong resilience given the broader weakness across most risky assets,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda.

Crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe is predicting an exciting period ahead with plenty of volatility and gains to be had. He believes that the markets will consolidate for a short period of time, but that the period of March - June will be "a party". 

Probably markets will consolidate for a bit, but March - June will be a party.

Enough volatility & enough gains to make.

— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) February 16, 2023

According to Santiment's market tracker, a major driver of Bitcoin's recent surge above $25,000 for the first time in 8 months has been the accumulation of over $2.74 billion in Tether USDT/USD by whales and sharks in the past 10 weeks. 

 Identifying reasons for #Bitcoin being able to surge above $25k for the first time in 8 months, we can start with key #Tether shark & whale buying power that was increasing since early December. Key stakeholders continue loading up for more buys. https://t.co/zknJcDgf9z pic.twitter.com/o8hbxQyGcv

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) February 16, 2023

Pseudonymous analyst Pentoshi believes the strength of the daily Bitcoin candle is a positive sign for the cryptocurrency, predicting a potential rally to as high as $32,000.

“This candle for BTC is just: Wow. As stated January 1st, I think the high range for this year is $28,000-$32,000. Have a feeling if we get there that’s going to be a super tough spot. This thing is truly wild lol. Looking at it in complete awe.”

This candle for $BTC is just

Wow

As stated Jan 1 I think the high range for this year is 28-32k. Have a feeling if we get there thats going to be a super tough spot pic.twitter.com/jAFKSsxd0T

— Pentoshi  (@Pentosh1) February 15, 2023

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