Cryptocurrency Market Update: Bitcoin Rallies AfterApple Earnings, But Vulnerable to Stock Market Action
Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Market Update
BTC and other cryptocurrencies rallied Friday after quarterly earnings from Apple sparked gains across risk-sensitive assets. But tokens remained below key technical levels following a selloff this week, and few immediate crypto-native catalysts leave digital assets vulnerable to action in the stock market.
Bitcoin Price Movement
The price of BTC has risen 3% over the past 24 hours to $59,300, with the largest digital asset paring losses after trading below $57,000 at points in recent days. Bitcoin hit a record high near $74,000 in mid-March amid a surge of interest from new spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs), but prices have since languished, tumbling from $64,000 earlier this week. Bitcoin shows signs of weakness from a technical market perspective, with prices significantly below the 50-day moving average near $66,000.
Market Analyst Predictions
“The hype around spot Bitcoin ETFs is going away, which reinforces selling by speculators,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, an analyst at broker FxPro. “We should expect further price declines in the coming weeks. The nearest likely target looks to be the $51,000 to $52,000 area, where growth was paused in February and where the 200-day moving average will be pulled up by the end of the month.”
Market Correlation and Outlook
While the technical backdrop for Bitcoin is gloomy and traders brace for more declines, the price action on Friday was upbeat, with cryptos following the S&P 500 index higher amid a rally in the stock market. Bitcoin has shown itself to be largely correlated with the stock market and similarly sensitive to the appetite for risk among investors.
Stocks rallied amid continued optimism that the Federal Reserve will indeed cut interest rates in the coming months, with the mood boosted by Apple beating quarterly earnings expectations and announcing a massive share buyback. The positive reaction to Apple’s earnings was helping cryptos in the short term, but it’s a dynamic that could bode ill in the longer run.
Future Outlook and Altcoin Movement
Bitcoin gained more than 40% this year on the back of ETF optimism as well as buying ahead of April’s “halving”—a change to BTC’s issuance that represents a support to prices—but there are few crypto-specific catalysts that lie immediately ahead. That could make Bitcoin even more sensitive to the whims of the stock market, with cryptos risking the loss of attention from investors who bought this year, raising the prospect of further ETF outflows that could weigh on prices.
Beyond Bitcoin, Ether—the second-largest crypto by market value—advanced 1% to near $3,000. Smaller tokens or altcoins also were upbeat, with Solana up 4% and Ripple rising 1%. Memecoins rose, with Dogecoin gaining 3% and Shiba Inu rising 4%.
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