Bitcoin‘s price continues to hover around $43,000, mirroring the previous day’s value, while altcoins also experience a price squeeze. The opening of the U.S. stock market could potentially break this stagnation, with spot Bitcoin ETF volumes playing a pivotal role.
After the initial excitement of the spot Bitcoin ETF approval, which pushed BTC’s price close to $49,000, the price has retracted by 10% as some analysts predicted, now lingering in the $42,500-$43,000 range for the past few days.
The ETF approval was already priced in by the market, leading to a deflated response. Contributing factors included a hacked account, the SEC’s removal of an announcement from their site, and premature ETF approval claims by Matrixport, which are now expected in the second quarter.
In altcoin news, Bitcoin’s market dominance index dropped from a weekly high of 54.56% to 51.14%, correlated with gains in Ethereum. If Bitcoin doesn’t suffer significant losses, this loosening dominance could lead to increased altcoin inflows, positively affecting the non-Bitcoin crypto segment.
Institutional investors have allocated $1.25 billion to crypto funds in the first two weeks of the year, indicating a sustained long-term interest despite the lack of significant outflows. The recent price drops have been attributed to approximately $4.7 billion in Bitcoin sales on exchanges, following the short-term expectations set after the ETF approval.