Strong inflows into the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) in the past two weeks pushed its Bitcoin (BTC) exposure to a new record high. No Bitcoin outflows despite 'rollover' risks The fund, which uses futures contracts to gain exposure to Bitcoin's price movements, had a record 28,450 BTC under its management — worth about $1.27 billion at today's price — as of March 24, compared to nearly 26,000 BTC a month before, according to official data from ProShares. Interestingly, the inflows appeared in the days leading up to the "rollover" of BITO's 3,846 March future contracts in the week ending …

Cryptocurrencies failed to break the 42-day long downtrend after the $1.95 trillion capitalization resistance was rejected on March 20. Even though Bitcoin (BTC) gained a modest 3.7% over the past seven days, altcoins presented a robust rally. Crypto markets' aggregate capitalization showed a 6.2% increase to $1.92 trillion between March 14-21. Such performance was positively impacted by Ether's (ETH) 14% gains, Cardano (ADA) increasing 13%, and Solana (SOL) gaining 10%. While those assets were not the biggest weekly gains among the top-80 coins, Ether may have fueled investors' expectations after Glassnode's on-chain data showed that ETH balances on crypto exchanges …

Ether (ETH) investors are having a rough time in 2022, with ETH accumulating 25% losses year-to-date as of March 17. Still, the cryptocurrency has bounced multiple times near $2,500 over the past couple of months, signaling a solid support level. On March 15, Ethereum developer Tim Beiko announced that the Kiln testnet — formerly Ethereum 2.0 — successfully passed the Ethereum “Merge.” The process involves taking Ethereum’s Execution Layer from the existing proof-of-work layer and merging it with the Consensus Layer from the Beacon Chain. The end goal is to turn the blockchain into a proof-of-stake network. The United States …

After Bitcoin (BTC) faced its third consecutive rejection, investors became more confident in adding altcoin positions. For the leading cryptocurrency, the path to $50,000 appears more challenging than previously expected. According to Euronews Next, on March 14, the European Union rejected a proposed rule that could have banned the energy-intensive proof-of-work (PoW) mining algorithm used by Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Several EU parliamentarians have been pushing to ban PoW mining over energy concerns. In terms of performance, the aggregate market capitalization of all cryptos was relatively flat over the past seven days, registering a modest 0.4% gain to $1.77 trillion. …

Bitcoin's (BTC) last daily close above $45,000 was 66 days ago, but more importantly, the current $39,300 level was first seen on Jan. 7, 2021. The 13 months of boom and bust cycles culminated with BTC price hitting $69,000 on Nov. 10, 2021. It all started with the VanEck spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund being rejected by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Nov. 12, 2020. Even though the decision was largely expected, the regulator was harsh and direct on the rationale backing the denial. Curiously, nearly one year later, on Nov. 10, 2021, cryptocurrency markets rallied to …

The phrase “hindsight is 20/20” is a perfect expression for financial markets because every price chart pattern and analysis is obvious after the movement has occurred. For example, traders playing the Feb. 28 pump that took Bitcoin (BTC) above $43,000 should have known that the price would face some resistance. Considering that the market had previously rejected at $44,500 on multiple instances, calling for a retest below $40,000 made perfect sense right? This is a common fallacy, known as "post hoc," in which one event is said to be the cause of a later event merely because it had occurred …

Ether (ETH) is still in troubled waters after failing to break a 5-week long descending channel top for the third time in a row. The March 2 test of the $3,000 resistance was followed by a 17.5% correction in 5 days, which signals that buyers are somewhat reluctant to defend the price. To date, Ether suffers from high network transaction fees, even though it dropped from $19 in mid-February to the current $13 per transaction. While this is less than peaks seen previously, $13 per transaction is still incompatible with most games, NFT and even DeFi transactions. Even more worrisome …

There is an old saying in traditional markets which is actually more like a trading rule. It goes, “when the trend is negative, one can only be neutral or short,” meaning bet on the price decrease. The problem is that a relief bounce tricks traders into believing that the negative prevailing sentiment has shifted into a buyers’ market. For example, after analyzing Ether's (ETH) price chart, one might conclude that after a 41% crash, a bull run should be ignited sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, this is a bit of a fallacy because markets can exist in periods of non-definition …

Major derivatives marketplace Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group will launch options trading for its micro Bitcoin and Ether futures products. In a Tuesday announcement, the CME Group said that, subject to regulatory review, it plans to launch options contracts for its existing micro Bitcoin (BTC) futures and micro Ether (ETH) futures that will be 10% the size of the respective tokens. The futures options, expected to start trading on March 28, will come more than two years after the firm launched a BTC options trading product in January 2020 and more than four years since the group launched the first Bitcoin …

Even though Ether (ETH) price bounced over 20% from the $2,300 low on Feb. 22, derivatives data shows that investors are still cautious. To date, Ether's price is down 24% for the year, and key overhead resistances lay ahead. Ethereum's most pressing issue has been high network transaction fees and investors are increasingly worried that this will remain an issue even after the network integrates its long-awaited upgrades. For example, the 7-day network average transaction fee is still above $18, while the network value locked in smart contracts (TVL) decreased 25% to $111 billion between Jan. 1 and Feb. 27. …

Whenever Bitcoin (BTC) fails to break through important resistance levels, traders gain confidence and add to their altcoin positions. The logic is that, unless BTC drops significatively, these movements historically provide decent rewards for those shifting their portfolios toward higher risk. In the past seven days, the aggregate market capitalization performance of the cryptocurrency market showed a modest 3% increase to $1.78 trillion. This number is roughly in line with the performance seen from Bitcoin, Ether (ETH), and Binance Coin (BNB). However, comparing the winners and losers among the top-80 coins provides skewed results. For instance, while the gainers captured …

Ether (ETH) reached a $3,280 local high on Feb. 10, marking a 51.5% recovery from the $2,160 cycle low on Jan. 24. That price was the lowest in six months, and it partially explains why derivatives traders’ main sentiment gauge plummeted to bearish levels. Ether’s futures contract annualized premium, or basis, reached 2.5% on Feb. 25, reflecting bearishness despite the 11% rally to $2,700. The worsening conditions depict investors’ doubts regarding the Ethereum network’s shift to a proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism. As reported by Cointelegraph, the much-anticipated sharding upgrade that will significantly boost processing capacity should come into effect in late …