In early trades on Friday, Bitcoin was consolidating. It was at the level of $26,836 as of the time of writing.
According to data from CoinMarketCap, a leading platform for tracking digital asset quotes, BTC price fluctuated between a low of $26,415 and a high of $26,466 over the past 24 hours.
The cryptocurrency market endured bearish pressures yesterday. As a result, Bitcoin's price fell by 2.22% and closed the day at $26,759. This pessimistic sentiment permeated other leading cryptocurrencies in the top-10 by market capitalization, most of which also experienced a price decline.
Notably, the past week has been rather turbulent for Bitcoin. During Wednesday's trading session, the digital gold gained 0.42% and closed at $27,1477. On Tuesday, the coin lost 1.25% and fell to $27,067. However, Monday proved to be a much more fruitful day for BTC as it soared by 1.91% and closed at $27,439.
Cryptocurrency experts suggest that a key factor pressuring Bitcoin this week has been investors' anxiety regarding a potential interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve in their upcoming June meeting. Nonetheless, many analysts believe that Bitcoin has a fair chance to break out of its bearish trend in the short term. Yet, strong market catalysts, which are currently absent, are required for the cryptocurrency to achieve this.
Performance of altcoins
Ethereum, Bitcoin's main competitor, also began Friday with sideways movement. At the time of writing, the altcoin is trading at $1,807 per coin. ETH ended Thursday's trading session down 1.73% at $1,795.
Looking at the top-10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, the best performer in the past 24 hours was XRP (+4.10%), while the worst was Solana (-3.21%).
Over the past week, all coins within the top ten, except for Tether, closed in the green zone. XRP also led this growth list, up by 11.42%.
According to data from CoinGecko, the world's largest aggregator of virtual asset data, the best performer among the top-100 most capitalized digital assets in the last 24 hours was Mask Network token (+4.39%), and the worst was Lido DAO (-8.36%).
Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, the best performer for the past week was the Render Token, which showed a gain of 41.34%, while the worst performer was XDC Network, with a loss of 7.83%.
According to CoinGecko, as of Friday evening, the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies is above the crucial level of $1 trillion and stands at $1.093 trillion. This figure decreased by 0.03% over the past 24 hours.
Since reaching its peak above $3 trillion in 2021, the market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market has shed almost $2 trillion.
Crypto experts' forecasts
When it comes to analysts' forecasts for Bitcoin near future, some believe in positive scenarios, while others remain highly skeptical.
Recently, YouTube analyst Jason Pizzino stated that even unfavorable market events would not halt BTC rally. He believes the coin will soon reach a range of $32,000–42,000.
Arthur Hayes, founder of the BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange, shares this sentiment. He is confident that regardless of the financial direction the U.S. Federal Reserve and the U.S. authorities take, BTC will climb to new price peaks. According to Hayes, this will occur both under conditions of high inflation and an increase in the key interest rate, and in the case of inflation decline and interest rate cuts.
At the same time, many crypto experts believe that BTC value will remain within the $26,300 – $27,800 range in the near future, with bulls having no chance to break the important key level of $28,000.
In April, BTC lost nearly 10%. By the end of March, the coin's price had soared by 22.6%, marking an increase for the third consecutive month amidst the normalization of the banking crisis situation.
The number one cryptocurrency finished this February with an increase of 0.9% reaching $23,200, and in the first month of 2023, it gained almost 40% in price, making January its best month since October 2021. Notably, January to March of this year proved to be the best quarter for the coin since the beginning of 2021, with BTC becoming one of the most profitable assets.
The key reason for the digital currency market's growth since the beginning of 2023 has been the looming crisis in the traditional financial market. Today, securities and bonds are undergoing a challenging period. That is precisely why we are witnessing a permanently increasing desire among investors worldwide to invest in virtual currencies.
