After yesterday’s significant price surge, bitcoin has stabilized around $30,000 in anticipation of the highly-anticipated US CPI numbers.
Most alternative coins (altcoins) have retraced today, with Ethereum (ETH) falling below $1,900 and Binance Coin (BNB) dropping below $320. However, Solana (SOL) has managed to defy market sentiment.
Bitcoin Ceases Movement at $30K
Last week and the weekend saw little-to-no movement in bitcoin’s price, which remained stagnant at around $28,000. However, the landscape shifted in the late hours of Monday and the early morning of Tuesday.
Bitcoin surged aggressively, surpassing $29,000 and even $30,000 for the first time since the Terra crash. This rally resulted in a price increase to $30,400, marking a new 10-month high.
Currently, bitcoin has lost some ground and has been hovering around the $30,000 price range. However, this is expected to change as the US CPI numbers for March are set to be released later today.
Bitcoin’s market capitalization has currently decreased to $580 billion, but its dominance over the altcoins continues to grow and is currently at 47.5%.
ETH Declines Before Shapella
Aside from the US CPI numbers, another highly anticipated event scheduled for today is the Ethereum Shapella upgrade. With speculations running rampant on what could happen to ETH’s price following the upgrade, the asset has slightly retraced in the past 24 hours and is currently trading below $1,900.
Most other larger-cap altcoins are experiencing a similar situation. BNB, XRP, ADA, DOGE, MATIC, and LTC have all declined by up to 4% in the past day. Solana is the only exception among the larger-cap altcoins. SOL has soared by 5.5%, adding to yesterday’s gains, and is currently trading above $23.
Most of the lower- and mid-cap altcoins are also slightly in the red today, resulting in a decline of over $20 billion in the cumulative market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies. Nonetheless, the metric still stands above $1.2 trillion on both CoinMarketCap (CMC) and CoinGecko.
