Should You Consider Going Short on Bitcoin While Longing Ethereum For Potential Short-Term Gains?

Short read

April 17, 2023 – The crypto outlook is mixed, according to ATTMO, a weather-inspired crypto AI forecasting tool. Bitcoin projections indicate a slightly bearish market in the coming 24 hours but a very bullish market with some upside potential in the next three days. 

Ethereum projections are bullish in the next 24 hours driven by its successful Shapella upgrade, while there is a risk of an imminent market correction for both Ethereum (ETH) and Binance (BNB) in the next three days, ATTMO shows.

Over a one-week horizon, ATTMO expects a slightly bullish market with upside potential for Bitcoin, Litecoin (LTC) and XRP, ATTMO data shows. The one-week outlook for Ethereum, Cardano (ADA) and Binance flags the risk of an imminent market correction ahead, following its steep rise since its successful Shapella upgrade last week. 

Long read

Consolidation on crypto markets following recent steep rises

The global crypto market consolidates following its stellar performance since the beginning of the year. 

“We would consider taking some profits as the crypto market is showing exuberant signs,” writes Markus Thielen, the head of research and strategy at Matrixport. 

Bitcoin dropped 1.6 percent over the past 24 hours, after having risen nearly 6 percent last week. The world’s largest cryptocurrency is up 80 percent since the beginning of the year. Bitcoin became a safe haven when global banking was rocked by turbulence in March. Its market capitalization is now larger than that of Tesla’s and ranks 10th behind assets such as gold, silver, Apple, and Microsoft.

Ethereum flat as staking withdrawals continue  

Ethereum traded sidelines following April 12’s Shanghai upgrade, which allowed ether miners to gradually withdraw their staked coins. The price of the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency oscillates around the 2,100 US dollar threshold and has soared 11.3 percent since April 12. 

The daily withdrawal restrictions prevent ether coins from flooding the market and causing a price crash. Ethers worth more than 2.1 billion dollars in total have been withdrawn since the upgrade. Another 1.8 billion dollars worth of Ether is currently pending withdrawal. The US crypto exchanges Kraken and Binance are behind 46 percent and 22 percent of these pending withdrawals, data from Nansen show. 

Kraken was fined by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) back in February for failing to register its staked Ethers as a security. The crypto exchange is thus automatically unstaking any locked Ethers held by its US clients. “The time this takes is dependent on the ETH protocol and out of Kraken’s control,” Kraken tweeted. 

Binance outperforms ahead of the start of Shapella redemptions

Binance rallied 3.7 percent over the past 24 hours. The world’s largest crypto exchange will allow its clients to redeem their staked ethers as of Wednesday, April 19. “Their ETH withdrawal requests may take 15 days to several weeks to be completed entirely,” Binance said on its website.

”Several market participants believed that the release of the staked ETH would result in significant selloffs. Nevertheless, due to strong demand, some believe that completing the unstaking request may take weeks or perhaps months,” Binance added.

Crypto market predictions influenced by US bank results & EU inflation data

This week, investors will continue to analyze the release of the first quarter results of leading US banks such as Charles Schwab and Bank of America. Competitors such as Citigroup that already have reported their quarterly results and saw their revenues rise, driven by the higher interest rate environment. These results give some signals on whether the US economy is slowing down or not.

Investors will also focus on the EU’s final March inflation figure, which will be released on Wednesday. Year-on-year, the EU’s March inflation is forecast to remain unchanged at 6.9 percent and its core inflation at 5.7 percent, according to the analyst consensus. These figures will probably force the European Central Bank (ECB) to continue to raise its key rate by 50 basis points when it meets on May 4.

DISCLAIMER
These forecasts are not trading advice; they are only decision-support tools. They do not include information that is specific to the user; in particular, they do not account for their personal risk appetite or market assessment.