The cryptocurrency market in the Americas is seeing a recovery, led by Ether and meme coins. Ether has reclaimed $3,500 and has risen over 4% in the last 24 hours, trading at $3,540. Other meme coins like DOGE and SHIB are also on the rise, with DOGE nearly 3.5% higher and SHIB up over 3%. Bitcoin, however, remains subdued at around $65,400, showing a slight increase of 0.2% from 24 hours ago.
According to wallets tracked by CryptoQuant, whales have sold over $1.2 billion worth of BTC in the past two weeks. This indicates that long-term bitcoin holders are not showing signs of renewed demand, suggesting a lack of upside for the cryptocurrency. Analysts believe that crypto miners may be turning to the booming AI sector instead of bitcoin, leading them to sell their bitcoin rewards instead of holding onto them. Both sectors rely heavily on powerful computing chips to generate and maintain data.
Broker Bernstein believes that bitcoin and crypto-linked stocks are currently underrated and ripe for institutional adoption. While BTC and bitcoin ETFs have shown promise in the past, there has been disappointment in recent months. However, Bernstein predicts that major wirehouses and large private bank platforms will approve ETFs in the second half of the year. They expect bitcoin ETF inflows to accelerate in the third and fourth quarters, with large advisers approving ETFs and making room for allocation from existing portfolios. Bernstein has outperform ratings for publicly traded firms like MicroStrategy, Robinhood, Riot Platforms, and CleanSpark.
In terms of market trends, the cumulative open interest in bitcoin perpetual futures trading on major exchanges has declined from $6.07 billion to $5.10 billion in two weeks. This suggests that the recent pullback in bitcoin prices is mainly due to the unwinding of bullish bets or profit-taking, rather than renewed bearish bets.
Overall, the cryptocurrency market in the Americas is showing signs of recovery, with Ether and meme coins leading the way. However, the future of bitcoin and crypto-linked stocks remains uncertain, with analysts and market observers keeping a close eye on developments in the market.