It was a volatile, yet overall positive close to the week for the cryptocurrency market as Bitcoin (BTC) spiked to a new all-time high, only to whipsaw 5.75% lower in a move that had many crypto investors feeling déjà vu after the same thing happened on its surge to a previous ATH on Tuesday.
The stock market experienced a similar development, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hitting new record highs during the morning session, only to fall into the red in the afternoon. The pullback came despite the February jobs report showing an uptick in the unemployment rate, which bolstered investor confidence that the Federal Reserve will cut rates after its June meeting.
At the closing bell, the S&P, Dow, and Nasdaq finished lower, recording losses of 0.65%, 0.18%, and 1.16%, respectively.
Data provided by TradingView shows that after hitting a new all-time high of $70,220 on Coinbase, Bitcoin’s price plunged to a low of $66,165 in less than an hour. Dip buyers were quick to step in and push it back above $68,000, at which point bulls took over and have since bid it back to $69,280 at the time of writing, an increase of 2.9% on the 24-hour chart.
BTC/USD Chart by TradingView
The strength from Bitcoin comes as spot BTC ETF volumes are set to establish a new record, as noted by Bloomberg Senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas in a post on X earlier on Friday.
“Something is in the water again, the ten bitcoin ETFs have seen a big day’s worth of volume in the first two hours, on pace to beat Tuesday’s wild $10b day,” he said. “$IBIT alone is $2.2b. A billion a day is big boy level, IBIT doing a billion an hour.”
MN Trading founder Michaël van de Poppe summed up the sentiment of crypto holders succinctly in the following tweet.
Historical day with #Bitcoin reaching $70,000 per 1 Bitcoin.
A new all-time high, but yet, still heavily undervalued.
The value is way higher, preserving capital, inflation hedge and keeping your purchasing power alive.
This cycle, I think we’ll see way higher numbers.
— Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) March 8, 2024
Phase two of the bull market begins
“This week saw another series of record-breaking events in the cryptocurrency market,” said analysts at Ryze Labs. “Bitcoin surged past its previous all-time high of $69,000 on March 5, only to experience a rapid 8% decline to $63,500, leading to $1 billion in total futures liquidations in less than 24 hours, the most significant since the peak of the last cycle in 2021. The total futures open interest plummeted from $36 billion to $29 billion within that same 24-hour span.”
“On Wednesday, Blackrock’s IBIT recorded daily inflows of $788 million, with total daily trading volume for Bitcoin ETFs nearing $10 billion on Tuesday,” they said. “This uptick indicates a growing interest from retail investors. There are various indicators supporting this trend: Coinbase’s app reached rank 49 in the Apple App Store, its daily futures volume exceeded $1.5 billion, and the Google search volume for ‘onchain’ hit an index peak of 100.”
Ryze Labs said a resurgence of meme coin mania is further evidence of the revival of retail interest, “exemplified by the meme coin WIF or ‘dogwifhat,’ which has seen an astonishing year-to-date increase of 1,250%.”
“The market dynamics have shifted to a bullish tone, where most tickers experience substantial gains on positive news without reverting to previous levels,” they said. “Additionally, sectoral rotations have been rapid, with meme coins losing momentum since Tuesday as liquidity has moved towards the AI sector. These patterns typically signify progression into the second phase of a bull market.”
Mixed close to the week for altcoins
The altcoin market was mixed as traders continued to rotate from higher flyers to lagging performers, with the top 200 tokens evenly split between winners and losers.
Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360
Meme coin FLOKI (FLOKI) led the field with a 68.7% price surge, while Livepeer (LPT) gained 48.2%, and Pepe (PEPE) climbed 36%. Kaspa (KAS) was the biggest loser, pulling back 7.1%, followed by a decline of 6.8% for Chia (XCH), and a loss of 6.7% for Raydium (RAY).
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $2.61 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 52.2%.
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