Will Bitcoin Rebound Above $22,000? See What Insiders Say

Bitcoin is on the verge of retesting the $22,000 resistance level and is currently trading around $21,800, up 1.26% in the past 24 hours, while Ethereum is up 0.78% and changing hands at $1,239.

Bitcoin and Ethereum are rebounding modestly following a strong performance by U.S. stocks on Thursday, with the S&P 500 up about 1.5% for its fourth straight day of gains.

The market started to pick up after FTX CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) said the company had billions of dollars available to help struggling crypto businesses. SBF’s crypto trading firm Alameda Research recently provided $200 million in cash and stablecoin revolving credit lines to Voyager Digital before Voyager Digital finally decided to file for bankruptcy protection.

Bitcoin is in another roughly three-week long consolidation period, with the price of the coin hovering between $18,000 and $22,000. The last time Bitcoin went through a long consolidation period, the price dropped by about $10,000.

This time, however, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz believes the worst is over.

“It feels like we’re 90% done with deleveraging, the problem is you need to go higher, you need the narrative to go higher, you need new capital to come in,” he told CNBC.

For now, Novogratz expects this “choppy sideways” action to continue for a while until the Fed withdraws its monetary tightening policy or until the previous bearishness on the cryptocurrency market has run its course.

Coinbase Premium

Ki Young Ju, CEO of CryptoQuant.com , took a different approach to Bitcoin analysis, pointing to the Coinbase premium as a sign that the market is recovering from its recent turbulent run.

The Coinbase premium refers to the difference between the spot price of Bitcoin on Coinbase and the same indicator on Binance. Most U.S. institutions use Coinbase to buy Bitcoin, and the rising premium suggests that U.S. financial institutions are once again increasing their holdings of Bitcoin.

Ethereum and altcoins follow closely behind

The good news for Ethereum and altcoins is that when Bitcoin rises, Ethereum and altcoins usually follow. ETH peaked at $4,900 in November before gradually declining over the following eight months.

These eight months are the same as the eight months in the previous bear market, when ETH fell from $1,600 to $160, a price drop of about 90%. Currently, ETH is down 74% and may be at the bottom of the current bear market.

Fear and Greed Index

Despite the potential positive signs from the market and analysts, the Fear and Greed Index for Bitcoin and other large cryptocurrencies remains in “Extreme Fear” with a value of 20, up from 18 yesterday, 11 last week, and 17 last month.

The aftermath of the Terra Network collapse on the crypto market is still lingering, with the two former crypto stars UST and LUNA losing 99% of their value in a week.

In addition, Three Arrows Capital and Voyager have filed for bankruptcy, and Celsius Network is still struggling to avoid bankruptcy protection. As BitTorrent previously reported, Celsius has repaid MakerDAO’s remaining loan in full, freeing up $440 million in collateral.

FundStrat analyst Walter Teng told CoinDesk that the released collateral could later be sold on exchanges or through over-the-counter transactions to meet creditor demands and customer withdrawals. Any dumping of Celsius could weigh on cryptocurrency prices.