Bitcoin (BTC) hit new nine-month highs on March 17 as the latest events in the growing United States banking crisis boosted crypto markets.
Banking crisis volatility sees $27,000 BTC price
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hitting $27,025 on Bitstamp before consolidating.
At the time of writing, the pair circled $26,500 with volatility ongoing after the Wall Street open.
A catalyst for fresh upside had come in the form of the Federal Reserveโs balance sheet data overnight, this showing almost $300 billion being injected into the economy as part of the banking crisis response.
The event effectively undid months of liquidity removal under the Fedโs quantitative tightening (QT), and commentators were quick to call the restarting of the opposite phenomenon โ quantitative easing (QE).
โTheyโll tell you itโs not QE, but the numbers donโt lie. Roughly half of the reduction from a year of quantitative tightening has been erased in a week,โ trader, analyst and podcast host Scott Melker, known as โThe Wolf of All Streets,โ commented.
Bitcoin thus followed a strong performance for U.S. equities the day prior.
For market commentators, belief was there that the uptrend could continue despite stocks producing sideways action on the day.
โBitcoin is trying to fly – this resistance line will break sooner or later,โ popular analytics resource Stockmoney Lizards summarized about a chart showing a rising resistance trend line for BTC/USD.
Cointelegraph contributor Michaรซl van de Poppe, founder and CEO of trading firm Eight, eyed specific levels up and down.
โChopperino land on Bitcoin, which means that we’ll probably have some sideways structures,โ he told followers on the day.
โNeeds to hold $26K. If that holds, $28-30K is next. If it loses $26K, I’m punting around $25K for some longs. Relatively easy to understand.โ
Hayes: I’m ditching stocks for crypto
In his latest markets blog post meanwhile, Arthur Hayes, former CEO of derivatives giant BitMEX, revealed a pivot of his own.
Related:ย Why is the crypto market up today?
In an extensive dissection of current Fed behavior and their potential consequences, Hayes concluded that Bitcoin was a firm haven โ in contrast to stocks.
โFor me and my portfolio, Iโm largely done trading stonks. Whatโs the point? I generally buy and hold and donโt trade around my positions that frequently. If I believe what I wrote, then I am signing myself up for underperformance,โ he revealed.
โIf there is a short-term trading opportunity where I think I can earn some quick fiat duckets and then take my profit and buy more Bitcoin, I will do it. Otherwise, I am liquidating most of my stock portfolio and moving it into crypto.โ
Hayes added that there was always a chance that he could be wrong about Bitcoinโs โupward trajectory,โ and that adjustments to his strategy would follow should that be the case.
โThe end was always known in advance. YCC is dead, long live BTFP!โ he concluded, referring to the Fedโs Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP) being a disguised form of Yield Curve Control (YCC) โrepackaged in a new, shiny, more palatable format.โ
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authorsโ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
