Ethereum is testing the $3K barrier after a weeks-long run-up has brought ETH up 30% on the month, more than holding its own against Bitcoin's outsized run with the ETH:BTC ratio climbing over the past week as well. Is ETH poised for a breakout and will retail traders show up to the party?
Over the weekend, Crypto Twitter analysts broke out their Bitcoin Halving star charts foretelling future gains and new all-time highs with still more than two months left before the reduction in block rewards.
But ETH has late-spring narrative action a plenty as well, with primetime for the spot ether ETF application approval still months out from key May deadlines for the SEC.
#Bitcoin halving within 61 days. pic.twitter.com/GguFGQfxlX
— 5.0 INVERTED 🙃⚛️ (@5_0Trading) February 19, 2024
Even as crypto prices see a pronounced run-up, the unspoken truth is that the energy isn't the same this time around. Insular exuberance doesn't hit quite the same and the question looming on every crypto trader's mind over the weekend was, where's retail?
Skeptics may tell you that these buyers won't prove so quick to forget their 2022 losses off the FTX and Terra collapses or their missteps aping into celebrity-lauded NFT plays. The biggest concern remains that retail is simply still in a worse place that it was in 2021 broader market and that recessionary fears and inflationary pains are going to leave this a game to the market's established entrants.
They’re dead. Celsius stole their money. FTX stole the rest of it. Moneyprinting continues but it’s reverted to an institutional cantillon effect via high fed rates and policy handouts. No more stimmies. Power law wealth distribution is the natural state of tech barring populism https://t.co/QpUuiCenWe
— foobar/ (@0xfoobar) February 19, 2024