Bullish ETH/BTC pair revives the Ethereum 'flippening’ discussion

Published at: April 29, 2021

Bitcoin and the overall cryptocurrency market saw minor losses on April 29 as the market heads into the expiry of $4.2 billion worth of (BTC) options contracts. 

Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that since reaching a high above $56,400 on April 28, the price of Bitcoin has dropped more than 6% back down near the $53,000 support level while Ethereum (ETH) continues to trade above $2,700.

Despite the lull in market activity, signs of mainstream cryptocurrency integration continue to emerge on a near-daily basis. Earlier today Coinbase announced that users can now purchase up to $25,000 worth of cryptocurrency per day using their PayPal account.

And it's not just financial institutions that are integrating blockchain technology to help achieve financial objectives. The government of Ethiopia revealed a partnership with Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), the research and development arm behind Cardano (ADA). The goal of the new partnership is to us blockchain technology to overhaul its education system.

ETH/BTC starts to climb higher

While Bitcoin continues to struggle below the $55,000 resistance level, the ETH/BTC pairing has started climbing higher in a move that was predicted by multiple analysts, including Real Vision CEO Raoul Pal. The bullish movement in the ETH/BTC pair has also reignited conversations about Ether price evetually flipping BTC.

According to Élie Le Rest, partner at digital asset management firm ExoAlpha, Ether has been getting stronger against Bitcoin since the end of March with the upcoming upgrade which includes EIP 1559 being “seen as a strong catalyst of the recent ETH bull-run.”

This increased momentum is a signal for Le Rest that the market may be in a “buy the rumor, sell the news configuration that may drive the price up until EIP 1559 is released in July this year.”

Le Rest said: 

"Overall, this Ethereum upgrade is getting closer to ETH 2.0, with features like shifting from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake chain including a burning fee mechanism. Those upcoming features are a great incentive for investors to tag along, contributing to ETH's strong recovery against BTC, but it’s still very early to put the flippening topic on the table again.”

A few altcoins make gains

The slumping price of Bitcoin weighed down the wider cryptocurrency market on Thursday with a majority of altcoins experiencing minor losses.

Some notable exceptions to the pullback include Syscoin (SYS), which at one point spiked 45% to $0.50 and the Binance Smart Chain-based Venus lending platform, whose XVS token rallied 30% to $97.90, just a dollar short of its all-time high.

Waves (WAVES), a multi-purpose blockchain platform, also experienced a 20% surge that lifted the token to a new record high at $23.43.

The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $2.035 trillion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 48.8%.

Tags
Bitcoin
Bitcoin Price
Markets
Ethereum
Altcoin
Market Update
Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin Futures
Ether Price
Ethereum Options
Derivatives
Bitcoin Options
Related Posts
Here’s how Eth2, DeFi and Bitcoin price will impact Ethereum’s CME futures
Bitcoin’s (BTC) abysmal December 2017 futures launch quickly fell short of investors expectations and even though the CME BTC market has surpassed $2.5 billion in open interest, the initial launch has reinforced the narrative that this week’s CME ETH futures launch will be equally bearish in the short term. Prior to the CME BTC futures launch, Bitcoin had already gained 1,900% for the year, a rally which some analysts argue was propelled by the expectation of regulated futures. Now that the CME ETH futures have launched, investors are watching closely to see if Ether (ETH) will face a similar situation …
Bitcoin / Feb. 13, 2021
Here’s why Bitcoin price is struggling to reclaim $38,000
After bouncing from the recent short-term low, Bitcoin (BTC) price posted a 15% gain over three days as it climbed from $32,400 to $37,200. This was an impressive move given that BTC price had been trading in a sideways range for weeks and regardless of the reasons behind the surge, one would expect large traders and arbitrage desks to follow the trend. Interestingly, this is not the case as many of the top traders opened short positions as BTC commenced its 15% move. Even if a trader lacks confidence in a potential retest of the $42,000 all-time high, opening shorts …
Bitcoin / Feb. 4, 2021
Bitcoin and altcoins correct after Yellen’s ‘illicit financing’ critique
On Tuesday, Ether (ETH) underwent a bullish breakout which propelled the price to a new all-time high at $1,428. While the move may have been technical, the fundamentals for Etheruem continue to improve as less than one month after launch there is now $3.8 billion worth of ETH locked on the Eth2 blockchain. The rapid rise in price has clearly attracted the attention of pro traders but Cointelegraph analyst Marcel Pechman warns that Ether’s rise to a new high was also accompanied by a large increase in short positions. Ether’s break to a new high had little effect on Bitcoin …
Bitcoin / Jan. 19, 2021
Flippening? Record $10B Ethereum futures volume briefly outpaces Bitcoin's
In the past 30 days, Ether (ETH) price decoupled from Bitcoin (BTC) to post a 67.5% gain, while the leading cryptocurrency price has barely moved. Ether's $3,605 all-time high on May 5 was responsible for boosting the asset's futures open interest to $10 billion. This movement brings up some crucial questions as the dominance of Bitcoin's derivatives markets appears to be challenged at the moment. On May 4, Ether's aggregate futures volumes surpassed Bitcoin's for the first time in history. Volume data from Coinalyze shows that $2.6 billion CME Bitcoin futures traded, along with $1.1 billion in CME Ether futures …
Markets / May 6, 2021
3 emerging crypto trends to keep an eye on while Bitcoin price consolidates
This week, Bitcoin’s (BTC) price took a tumble as a hotter-than-expected consumer price index (CPI) report showed high inflation remains a persistent challenge despite a wave of interest rate hikes from the United States Federal Reserve. Interestingly, the market’s negative reaction to a high CPI print seemed priced in by investors, and BTC’s and Ether’s (ETH) prices reclaimed all of their intraday losses to close the day in the black. A quick look at Bitcoin’s market structure shows that even with the post-CPI print drop, the price continues to trade in the same price range it has been in for …
Bitcoin / Oct. 14, 2022