Fidelity has published its quarter breakdown, showing how the market may react for Bitcoin and Ethereum. Per that report, the short and long term outlook is positive. The conclusion reflects sentiments as of the end of 2023. It does, however, consider the upcoming Bitcoin Halving, emphasizing how it may boost the price of BTC. For ETH, it is likely to rely on the next upgrade, which is scheduled to happen in 2024.
Bitcoin rose by ~154% by the end of 2023 and is now up by 92.63% in the last 12 months. Bitcoin halving will programmatically occur in April to reduce the supply and subsidy by half. It will be a key metric, further shedding light on the importance of other custody options. This includes self-custody or regulated third-party custodians like Fidelity Digital Assets.
Another aspect that is fueling optimism toward BTC is the approval of its Spot ETF applications.
Ether, according to the report, was up by 90% on a year-to-date basis at the time of the publication of the report. Right now, the rise is 44.90% in the last 12 months. Ethereum is maintaining a higher rate of burn than issuance to contribute to the growth. Nearly 311,000 tokens have been removed from the network. This happened in the timeline that starts in September 2022, a time when The Merge was implemented. The next upgrade in 2024 may uptick the validation.
There is also a significant slowdown in Ether being staked. It signals that the community is approaching a terminal staking percentage. Slower staking growth of the token is only poised to contribute to the health of Ethereum this year. The other two factors contributing to this aspect are sustained base layer usage and the adoption of Layer 2 solutions.
BTC is again rising from the dust. It is currently exchanging hands at $44,738.13. ETH is reflecting a similar bullish sentiment with a valuation of $2,425.65 at the time of drafting this article. Crypto projections are indeed positive based on several techniques like Trend Lines, Average Directional Index, and Relative Strength Index.
Bitcoin has jumped by 4.06% in the last 24 hours and by 6.24% in the last 7 days. The market cap and 24-hour volume have increased by 4.08% and 47.77%, respectively. Ethereum is following the trend, with a rise of 2.58% in the last 24 hours and a surge of 6.90% in the last 7 days. Its market cap and 24-hour volume have also gone up by 2.58% and 7.94% in the same order.
The community speculates BTC will react strongly to Bitcoin Halving. It has a historical reference to pulling the price up significantly. Approval of ETF applications saw a slight pushback due to selling pressure. That may not be the case with Halving since the selling pressure has comparatively eased off.
