Bitcoin BTC price holds steady near $30.5K, Ether ETH price circles around $2.1K
Bitcoin (BTC) recently traded at $30,450, up 0.4% from 24 hours ago and more than 9% for the week, according to CoinDesk data. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization breached $31,000 earlier in the day before retreating during US intraday (ET).
Ether (ETH) rose 5.4% on Friday and recently traded at $2,105. That’s up over 12% for the week.
“Ether and bitcoin have both seen upside follow-through after confirming base breakouts in late March, which are equally positive medium-term developments on their charts,” Will Tamplin, senior analyst at technical research firm Fairlead Strategies, told CoinDesk in an email .
Tamplin noted that ETH and BTC’s next major resistance levels are roughly $2,400 and $35,900, respectively, targeted in the coming weeks.
Still, he added that with both assets “starting to look extended in the near term … we wouldn’t rule out a pullback in the coming days to digest recent gains,” with initial support near $1,670 for ETH and $25,200 for BTC.
Greg Magadini, Director of Derivatives at crypto analytics firm Amberdata, highlighted in an interview with CoinDesk that the relative costliness of ETH calls versus puts in ETH – also known as the risk reversal bias – currently favors the call side for all post-Shapella expirations. Magadini said this trend signals “bullish activity in the sense that people are willing to pay more on the phone side.”
Typically, a call buyer is bullish about the market, while the put buyer is bearish.
Magadini noted that while bitcoin has driven option volume, open interest and volatility this year, especially as BTC rallied in January and following last month’s banking crisis, the Shapella upgrade is the first time we’re seeing some life back in the Ethereum market,” he said.
“On Ethereum, developers have proven that they can follow their vision,” Magadini said. “We have made a big milestone and so this brings back validity and credibility to Ethereum.”
Meanwhile, several other altcoins jumped on Friday. Decentralized smart contract platform Injective Protocols INJ surged more than 28% in the past 24 hours to trade at $8.64, while artificial intelligence-focused crypto protocol Fetch.ai’s FET surged 13% to trade at 40 cents. Layer 2 network Optimism’s OP was up 7% to $2.62.
Stocks fell on Friday as investors began to process earnings season: The S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq closed down 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell 0.4% for the day.
