This excerpt is from CoinDesk's 'Daybook' newsletter. Subscribe now for more insights. Bitcoin's price reached $77,400, rebounding alongside other risk assets after major US tech companies' earnings reports stabilized the market. The gains followed Apple's earnings report, which, along with Google parent Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon, reported double-digit revenue growth.
These reports renewed confidence in the AI growth story, pulling investors back into equities and crypto, although the current bounce is driven more by relief buying than conviction of a new rally. According to crypto exchange Mercado Bitcoin, the market faces 'short-term pressure with mixed structural factors,' including reduced hopes for rate cuts, ETF outflows, and higher geopolitical risks.
Despite oil price surges and over $400 million in outflows from spot bitcoin ETFs, crypto prices held steady as April ended. 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.
This could negatively impact crypto and other risk assets by making cash and bonds more attractive. 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, volatility may increase due to 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 unwind. 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 weekly bitcoin price testing rejection at the $80,000 resistance zone, with the RSI showing early signs of a bullish divergence, though unconfirmed on a weekly close.
A 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.