Bitcoin below $27.5k on PEPE, Binance congestion issues

The biggest crypto currency in terms of market capitalization was recently trading at nearly $27,350, more than 5.5 per cent lower during the last 24 hours

Bitcoin (BTC) started the U.S. trading week, dropping below $27,500 in the afternoon (ET).

The biggest crypto currency in terms of market capitalization was recently trading at nearly $27,350, more than 5.5 per cent lower during the last 24 hours, as per CoinDesk data, as investors continued to weigh a surge in interest in the PEPE meme coin and Binance congestion issues that compelled the leading exchange to briefly halt bitcoin withdrawals over the weekend.

Binance restarted the service Sunday night (ET), but the halts and increasing price of bitcoin raised questions about the effect of big bitcoin transaction volume.

Ether (ETH) followed a similar pattern, dropping below the $1,900 mark it has held for most of the past week. The second biggest crypto in market value was trading at about $1,829, off 4.4 per cent on a 24-hour basis.

Ether’s deflationary narrative after Ethereum Shapella upgrade has strengthened as ether’s net issuance, or the annualized inflation rate, recently declined to -2.7 per cent, as per ultrasound.money. Over 62,300 ether, worth nearly $116mln, have been burned in the last week, according to ultrasound.money’s data tracker.

Both bitcoin and ether have not tested near-term supports since the mid-March rally, Joe DiPasquale, Chief Executive Officer of crypto fund manager BitBull Capital, told CoinDesk.

He said bitcon might test support between $25k and $27k before climbing again, even though the economic outlook is favourable for bitcoin and the wider crypto market to flourish. DiPasquale termed collecting bitcoin and ether on dips a sound strategy.

Majority of leading tokens were also trading in the red on Monday, including crypto payment-centred XRP and Polygon’s MATIC, with both dipping more than 8 per cent to trade at nearly 42 cents and 92 cents, respectively.