By
Steve Muchoki
April 19th, 2024
Bitcoin price traded around $38,530 at the time of reporting, having gained approximately 0.5 percent in the past 24 hours.
Bitcoin price is retesting a crucial support level of around $38K, as the stock market in the United States remains closed on Monday following public holidays. Investors are closely monitoring the happenings in the Russia-Ukraine territorial tensions. The latest updates reveal that President Vladimir Putin and US counterpart President Joe Biden are likely to hold a diplomatic meeting in the coming days.
Meanwhile, it has been reported that Putin has ordered his tactical commanders to plan for a full strike attack on Ukraine. According to some analysts, an attack on Ukraine remains imminent, which could make it Europe’s worst war since the Second World War on a sheer scale.
The geopolitical differences in Europe are expected to come with far-reaching economic uncertainty, as the UK prime minister Boris Johnson highlights significant sanctions on Russia.
Consequently, the result of the war could see the supply chain of crude oil largely disrupted, putting in mind Russia is a major oil producer. Moreover, the country significantly controls the Bitcoin mining hashrate, a means to secure the Bitcoin network.
Bitcoin Price and the Market Outlook
According to market data provided by Binance-backed Coinmarketcap, Bitcoin price traded around $38,530 at the time of reporting, having gained approximately 0.5 percent in the past 24 hours. The digital asset has a market capitalization of approximately $730 billion with its past 24-hour trading volume at $18.3 billion.
The asset is approximately 43 percent down from its $69k all-time high set late last year. However, the asset has gained over 58,800 percent in the past decade.
While crypto newbies get trapped in short-term volatility and perspectives, market experts including Du Jun, co-founder at Huobi, think the next crypto bull market will not happen until 2024. Furthermore, the crypto market has significantly shifted after every Bitcoin halving.
Meanwhile, on-chain data indicates investors are fast collecting coins at cheaper prices. The next two years are expected to be a consolidation mixed with a bear market as it has been in the past before the halving event.
Bitcoin, Altcoins and Stock Market
Similarly, the altcoin market has been trapped in similar long-term price action as Bitcoin. Led by Ethereum, BNB, Solana (SOL), Avalanche (AVAX) the altcoin market however recorded higher volatility as usual. Notably, the level of competition remains high in the top crypto positions. Legends including Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash her been dethroned from the top ten in crypto.
The stock market, which has recently shown a high correlation with the crypto market, has also been shaky in the past few days following Europe’s geopolitical volatility.
“Global stocks have lost another $1.3tn in market cap this week on heightened Russia/Ukraine risk & the potential for continual Fed rate hikes this year,” markets commentator Holger Zschaepitz said.