Bitcoin trades well above $50,000, while Ethereum outperforms Bitcoin

Bitcoin prices climbed for a fourth day in a row even as the 10-year bond yield continued to climb to 1.6%.
As of 3:00 Beijing time, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading around $51,800.08. Climbing 3.48% in the past 24 hours. Bitcoin's 24-hour range: $49,390.18-51,982.31 (coin 20) BTC is trading above its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, which is a bullish sign for market technicians.

Bitcoin prices have retreated from all of their February highs in recent weeks, falling along with U.S. stocks as investors grow concerned that rising U.S. government bond yields could prompt the Federal Reserve to tighten monetary policy, curbing the era of easy money that has driven risk assets from stocks to cryptocurrencies.
But as of Monday, bitcoin prices climbed for a fourth day in a row, even as 10-year bond yields continued to climb to 1.6%. U.S. stocks fell.
“It’s interesting that both U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar index are rising, but bitcoin, unlike in the past, is not moving in the opposite direction to them,” Andrew Tu, an executive at the trading firm, told CoinDesk.
For now, there is little evidence of a surge in trading volume, which could reflect a new shock to market strength. Daily trading volume on eight U.S.-focused exchanges CoinDesk tracks has been flat, in line with a nearly two-week trend.

A bullish sign continues to develop: According to data from blockchain data site Glassnode, the balance of Bitcoin held on exchanges has reached its lowest level since November 2018. Market analysts interpret the decline in exchange Bitcoin balances as a bullish sign, indicating that few traders are looking to sell long positions. This could mean that there is little chance of a major market correction in the short term.

While trading activity is relatively quiet and Bitcoin is currently trading above $50,000, some analysts are eyeing the next resistance level.
“It looks like $52,000 is an important resistance that we want to break,” the analyst said.
Others, however, warn that crypto markets could weaken again if bond yields and a stronger dollar continue to rise.
“We may see some volatile swings as the U.S. interest rate market develops, with risk sentiment spilling over into the crypto market,” crypto market maker Annabelle Huang told CoinDesk.
Huang said Bitcoin’s short-term support levels will be between $40,000 and $43,000. She said visits to those levels in the past have been enough to attract buyers.
Ether is superior to Bitcoin, and the market awaits Ethereum upgrades There’s a new force in the ether market: the craze for non-fungible tokens, also known as NFTs, a fast-growing sub-sector within the crypto industry that, so far, has largely been built on top of the Ethereum blockchain.
Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, rose on Monday and was trading around $1,773.21 as of 21:00 ET (4:00 p.m. ET), up 7.37% in 24 hours.
Ether has been outperforming Bitcoin since reaching over $2,000 on Feb. 19. It is currently benefiting from dizzying sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the prospect that further growth could spur more demand for ether.
Stefan Coolican, chief financial officer of investment firm Ether Capital, said the NFT craze continued this week, and with the vast majority of NFT tokens built on the Ethereum blockchain, the ether market is attracting new bullish speculation.
At the same time, Ethereum's scheduled upgrade of "Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1559" (EIP 1559) has also attracted the attention of investors.
“One of the big issues with mainstream investors right now is their concerns about transaction fees and usability of Ethereum,” Brian Mosoff, CEO of Ether Capital, told CoinDesk, noting that a lot of investment in Ethereum has been focused on scaling solutions.
Ethereum blockchain users currently pay miners "gas" fees to include transactions in blocks. David Desch, an analyst at investment platform eToro, said in explaining EIP 1559 that these fees account for a large portion of miners' total revenue. However, under the new proposal, natural "gas fees" will be sent to the network in a new fee structure called "base fee."
“We expect Ether to break above $2,000 this year, with both the hard fork and fee changes helping to solidify its position as the second-largest crypto asset, sparking further demand,” Derhy said.
He added that the price rebound of ether proves that the update is well received by most markets. (Blockchain Napoleon)