Bitcoin (BTC) hit new nine-month highs on March 17, as the latest developments in the escalating United States banking crisis boosted the crypto markets.
Banking crisis volatility drives BTC price up to $27,000
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching $27,025 on Bitstamp before consolidating.
At the time of writing, the pair was hovering around $26,500 with constant volatility after the Wall Street open.
A catalyst for a new lead came in the form of overnight Federal Reserve balance sheet data showing nearly $300 billion was pumped into the economy as part of the response to the banking crisis.
The event effectively undid months of liquidity draining under the Fed’s quantitative tightening (QT), and commentators were quick to call a reboot of the opposite phenomenon: quantitative easing (QE).
“They will tell you that it is not QE, but the numbers do not lie. Approximately half of the reduction of a year of quantitative tightening has been erased in a week”, commented trader, analyst and podcaster Scott Melker, known as “The Wolf of All Streets.”
Bitcoin therefore followed a strong performance by US stocks the day before.
For market commentators, it was believed that the uptrend could continue despite stocks producing sideways action during the day.
“Bitcoin is trying to fly – this resistance line will be broken sooner or later”, summarized popular analysis resource Stockmoney Lizards on a chart showing a rising resistance trend line for BTC/USD.
Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe, founder and CEO of trading firm Eight, noted specific levels up and down.
“Chopperino Lands on Bitcoin, Which Means We Will Probably Have Some Side Structures,” said to his followers that day.
“You need to have USD 26,000. If that holds, $28,000-30,000 is next. If he loses $26,000, I’ll bet around $25,000 for a few longs. Relatively easy to understand.”
Hayes: Ditching Stocks for Crypto
Meanwhile, in his latest markets post, Arthur Hayes, former CEO of derivatives giant BitMEX, revealed a twist of his own.
In a lengthy dissection of the Federal Reserve’s current behavior and its potential consequences, Hayes concluded that Bitcoin was a safe haven, in contrast to stocks.
“For myself and my portfolio, I am largely done with trading stonks. What is the point? I generally buy and hold, and I don’t trade my positions that often. If I believe what I wrote, then I sign up for underachievement,” she revealed.
“If there’s a short-term trading opportunity where I think I can make quick fiat money and then take my profit and buy more Bitcoin, I’ll do it. Otherwise, I will liquidate most of my stock portfolio and move it to cryptocurrency.”
Hayes added that there was always the possibility that he could be wrong about Bitcoin’s “upward trajectory”, and that adjustments would be made to his strategy if that were the case.
“The end was always known in advance. YCC is dead, long live BTFP!” he concluded, referring to the Fed’s Bank Term Financing Program (BTFP) as a disguised form of Yield Curve Control (YCC) “repackaged in a new, shiny and nicer format.”
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