BTC and ETH prices remained mostly unchanged this past weekend after dropping last Friday. BTC’s price dropped significantly last week – many believed it would overtake the all-time high (ATH), but it fell flat, dropping below $69,000 from about $72,000.
Macroeconomics was at play as non-farm payroll figures were much better than expected as the US economy added 272,000 new jobs instead of the predicted 185,000 jobs. That will have other effects, such as the Fed not cutting interest rates, which many in the markets assumed was likely. So, investors scrambled to liquidate their positions from speculative assets, including crypto.
Consequently, BTC observed $400 million in liquidations on Friday as traders with leverage were forced to close their positions. That caused BTC’s price to drop considerably, preventing bullish participants from seeing the asset beat its ATH of $73,738. Other cryptos also saw their gains reduced after a few days of rallying prices – ETH dropped below $3,650.
BNB lost 5.5% after reaching its new ATH of over $710. Holders likely liquidated to collect profits, but the ripple effect from BTC’s drop could have also been a factor. Memecoins also took a significant hit because of the falling BTC price and another factor – the falling GameStop stock price, which came right after meme stock aficionado Roaring Kitty took his thoughts to a live stream. DOGE fell by 8%, SHIB by 10%, and PEPE by 15%.
After Friday’s events, BTC and ETH prices stayed fairly stagnant over the weekend and started Monday at around the same prices they dipped to before the weekend. However, the top two digital assets will most likely experience volatility this week. Scheduled events will act as macroeconomic factors – the CPI release on Wednesday, the FOMC meeting on Thursday, and Janet Yellen’s speech on Friday – to lend volatility to the assets.
Image by WorldSpectrum from Pixabay
