Bitcoin Hovers Above $27,000 as U.S. Stocks Advance

Bitcoin ($BTC) finished the U.S. market day above the $27,000 mark as markets remain generally unaffected by the war in Gaza.

The crypto was down 0.73% over the past 24 hours and was changing hands at $27,395 towards the close of business U.S. East Coast time. Ether ($ETH) was down 0.96% and trading at $1,546. The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) was lower by 0.9%. CoinDesk Indicies’ Bitcoin Trend Indicator shows a significant uptrend predicted for bitcoin’s price while the ether trend indicator is forecasting a significant downtrend.

In equities markets, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose a bit more than 0.5%, ignoring for a second day the possible negative effects from the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Speaking with CNBC on Tuesday, Mark Newton of Fundstrat anticipates a buying opportunity, saying there’s a “good likelihood” the bottom is in for stocks. Newton expects a short-lived market decline due to geopolitical events to be followed by a rebound.

Big Week for Unlocks

Aptos ($APT), and Ape Coin ($APE) are all scheduled to undergo large token unlocks in the next week.

Token unlocks can temporarily depress crypto prices, but when liquidity freed represents over 100% of daily volume, prices rebound briefly before falling further within two weeks, according to research by The Tie previously reported by CoinDesk.

Aptos is scheduled to unlock 4.54 million ($APT) on Wednesday, worth around $22.2 million based on current market prices. $APT is down 2.2% on day and 9% on week.

Meanwhile, Ape Coin is going to unlock 15.6 million ($APE) $15.88 million later this week, and its token is down 1% on-day and 11.3% on-week.

Rising $BTC dominance

Meanwhile, bitcoin’s grip on the overall cryptocurrency market has been rising relentlessly. The ($BTC) market cap dominance metric rose above 51%, its highest reading since July, according to TradingView data.

“Despite the recent global turmoil, bitcoin has demonstrated exceptional strength, securing its position as the top-performing asset over the past 30 days relative to the US Dollar,” Joel Kruger, market strategist at LMAX Group, noted in an email. He attributed $BTC’s rising dominance to the second-largest crypto asset $ETH’s stronger correlation with risk sentiment and its increasing token supply after reverting to being inflationary, making bitcoin more attractive for investors.

($ETH) this week has dropped to a fresh 15-month low relative to $BTC amid slumping blockchain activity on Ethereum and dismal investor interest for newly listed futures-based ETFs in the U.S.

K33 Research noted in a Wednesday market report that traders on the derivatives market anticipate that $ETH will keep underperforming.

“The explanation can simply be that $BTC as digital gold in a risk-off environment, sprinkled with the potential of spot bitcoin ETFs soon, is more enticing than the DeFi and NFTassociated $ETH,” K33 analysts wrote. “Sticking to $BTC until there is clear proof of a spark in $ETH is likely the safest exposure for the time being.”