Bitcoin Sees Uptick as Tech Earnings Boost Market Sentiment, Despite Ongoing Short-Term Pressures

This excerpt is from the CoinDesk newsletter 'Daybook.' To stay updated, sign up here if you haven't already. Bitcoin reached $77,400, rebounding alongside other risk assets following the release of earnings reports from major US tech companies, which helped stabilize the markets. The gains followed Apple's earnings report, which, along with those from Google's parent company Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon, all showed double-digit revenue growth. These reports boosted risk assets as renewed confidence in AI growth drew investors back to equities and crypto, although the current bounce seems to reflect relief buying rather than a new rally. According to crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin, the market is experiencing 'short-term pressure with mixed structural factors,' including reduced hopes for rate cuts, ETF outflows, and higher geopolitical risks. Despite oil prices surging and over $400 million in outflows from spot bitcoin ETFs, crypto prices held steady as April came to a close. Oil prices, influenced by the Iran conflict and disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, could fuel inflation, making central banks less likely to cut interest rates, which could negatively impact crypto and other risk assets by making cash and bonds more appealing. The Federal Reserve maintained interest rates at 3.50% to 3.75%, with four dissenting voices, the most since 1992. Mercado Bitcoin noted that the decision and lack of clear rate-cut signals led to a repricing of policy expectations. 'In the short term, the market is expected to remain volatile and highly reactive to economic data,' said Rony Szuster, the company's head of research. 'In the medium term, the structure remains dependent on the stabilization of institutional flows and the path of global monetary policy.' With Jerome Powell's chairmanship at the Fed ending on May 15 and Kevin Warsh expected to chair the June FOMC meeting, which could lead to increased volatility given Warsh's preference for tightening monetary policy, the key test for bitcoin remains at $80,000. Breaking this level could attract new buyers, while a failed attempt may trigger selling if leveraged long positions are unwound. For more analysis on today's altcoin and derivatives activity, see Crypto Markets Today, and for a comprehensive list of this week's events, see CoinDesk's 'Crypto Week Ahead.' Currently trending is the bitcoin price testing rejection at the $80,000 resistance zone, with the RSI showing early signs of a bullish divergence, though this remains unconfirmed on a weekly close. Failure to break above this level keeps the price range-bound between the 200-day exponential moving average of about $68,000 and the $80,000 level.