- Ethereum has enjoyed a stellar weekend, jumping $82 after Bitcoin stalled at the $18,500 level
- A mini alt season could be on the cards after the Bitcoin dominance level rejected
- Ethereum 2.0 staking also increased over the weekend, helping to explain the buy pressure
Ethereum enjoyed a stellar weekend, helping the alt market roar back into life as Bitcoin stalled around the $18,500 area. Aided by a sudden surge in Ethereum 2.0 staking, Ethereum raced from $505 at midnight Saturday to $587 late Sunday night, while the alt market cap added $31 billion to its total, reaching levels not seen since June 2018.
Bitcoin No Longer the Talk of the Town
Bitcoin has of course been grabbing all the headlines of late, thanks to a rocket propelled seven weeks that have seen it run from $10,450 to $18,500. It finally seems to be taking a breather at the current levels, at which is has been consolidating since Friday, maintaining an upward trend in the meantime:
This period of rest has allowed alts to play catchup, with XRP and ETH in particular enjoying huge gains this weekend. As we suggest last week might happen, this has resulted in the Bitcoin dominance level once again being unable to cross a resistance level that has existed since April 2017:
As a result, the alt coin market cap has continued higher, hitting heights not seen since June 2018 and a resistance level set back when the market failed to turn a dead cat bounce into anything more meaningful:
A mini alt season could well be on the cards now while Bitcoin gathers itself for an assault on all time highs. Were this to occur we would see this resistance level taken out, which would leave very little standing in the way of a push to the next resistance level of $250 billion.
Staking Pushes Ethereum Buy Pressure
Ethereum’s rapid ascent has been driven almost entirely by the Ethereum 2.0 narrative, and in particular a surge in deposits into the staking contract over the weekend:
Buy pressure has also been added by the introduction of PayPal into the crypto market and the knowledge that they have to back each user’s purchase of one of their CFDs with real cryptocurrency. While Bitcoin seems to have been the biggest beneficiary of this, the second placed (and cheaper) Ethereum will have also seen buyers picking it up through PayPal’s cryptocurrency platform.
All in all it’s safe to say that Ethereum is enjoying something of a golden period, with the price action matching the hype of the Ethereum 2.0 launch. This could well trickle down and bring in a full blown alt season (at least until Bitcoin moves again), but beware a selling of the news even which could see the price crash when it finally goes live.
