Bitcoin dropped to $27.500, dogecoin higher

The biggest crypto currency was recently trading at $27,500, down more than 2 per cent from 24 hours ago

Bitcoin (BTC) remained strongly within the range it has been for much of the last two weeks, trading as low as around $27,200 and as high as $28,400 Monday.

The biggest crypto currency in terms of market capitalization was recently trading at $27,500, down more than 2 per cent from 24 hours ago. Bitcoin is around 70 per cent higher for the year following a buoyant Q1 during which investors turned more buoyant about inflation and other macroeconomic issues.

Yet, bitcoin’s price has not been able to go higher than $29,000 for more than a few minutes during recent weeks as investors consider banking failures and new economic indicators that have been inconclusive.

Bitcoin requires a bullish catalyst to surpass the $30,000 mark, but until some considerable use case argument is made prices could consolidate near the mid-$20,000s, according to Edward Moya, senior market analyst at foreign exchange trader Oanda.

Ether (ETH), the second-biggest crypto currency, also dropped 0.2 per cent Monday to stay near $1,787. Ether’s price climbed 48 per cent in Q1. Among other altcoins, the meme-based dogecoin (DOGE) – long backed by Twitter Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk – soared 16.5 per cent after the social networking platform changed its logo to the dogecoin symbol from the usual blue bird. Payments provider Alchemy Pay’s native ACH token increased 7 per cent following a Monday report which showed that the firm has received $10mln in investment from market maker DWF Labs at a $400mln valuation.

In the meantime, market liquidity has continued to aggravate. Crypto data company Kaiko’s report on Monday noted that bitcoin as well as ether’s 2 per cent market depth, a measure for evaluating liquidity conditions, has declined 50 per cent and 41 per cent, each, since the collapse of Alameda Research, the trading arm of crypto exchange FTX in November – a so-called “Alameda gap.” The continuing decline has come after exchange Binance’s announcement that it was holding back its zero-fee trading program, the crypto data company said.

Both assets (bitcoin and ether) have suffered after the FTX collapse and banking crisis, with fewer market makers supplying liquidity to order books, according to the report.