Bitcoin maintains a level above $34,000 at the beginning of the new week’s trading, as well as Ethereum, which is trying to consolidate above the $1,780 level.
It seems that the upward momentum that we witnessed at the beginning of last week has actually calmed down, while bitcoin has so far been able to retain the bulk of the gains of that upward trend.
After a wave of liquidation of short positions after the sharp rise, it was followed by another wave of liquidation of long positions while taking profits, according to data provided by CoinGlass.
While we witnessed the return of balance to these liquidations between sellers and buyers, with some preference for sellers, especially in the previous 24 hours.
I think the markets feel that levels above 35,000 are unrealistic at the moment due to the absence of real and fundamental supporting developments.
That was because last week’s rises came to raise hopes for the imminent launch of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which I believe are still hopes until now, and we do not see conclusive evidence about the possibility of launching these ETFs at the present time, whether after the news that came from the asset management supergiant BlackRock after the listing The iShares Bitcoin Trust Fund is on the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), in addition to hopes that the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust will soon be approved to transform into an ETF, and finally that a number of asset managers will amend previous application for these ETFs.
While regulatory concerns may return to dominate the markets unless we see more encouraging news about the possibility of actually launching these ETFs.
Moreover, we have seen more negative numbers about cryptocurrency thefts and hacks. According to data provided by DefiLlama, more than $300 million was stolen last September, which is the highest level since November of last year, and thus it may reach nearly a billion dollars during the year 2023, while more than 16% of those thefts occurred through compromising the private keys of crypto wallets in an unknown way.
I believe that these thefts will add more pressure to this sector and may hinder the widespread adoption of this technology, while security concerns persist and may continue to weaken the confidence of participants for a longer time.
