Boring? Bitcoin Trading Spurs Calls for a New Hype Cycle

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Over the weekend, Bitcoin price hardly budged. On Monday, the coin posted a negligible 0.02% drop. On Tuesday, it was yet again unchanged.

Such has been trading in the world’s largest cryptocurrency that some analysts and market-watchers have resorted to calling it “boring.” In fact, Bitcoin fell 0.4% as of 12:36 p.m. in New York, poised for its fourth straight session of moving less than 1% -- the longest run of dormancy since April 5. The digital currency has swung within a 5% band for a seventh straight session in a prolonged calm not seen since Jan. 19.

All the tranquility came off a month of a relative stability, something that stood out amid a market selloff that sent stocks and bonds to their worst April in decades. Over the month, Bitcoin’s 26% gyration from peak to trough was the smallest since September 2020.

It’s a remarkably listless state of being for an asset that’s long been known for its volatility. David Duong, head of institutional research at Coinbase, attributes its tepid moves to the macro environment -- weaker growth and higher inflation have been acting “as a drag on crypto.”

So what’s needed for a breakout? “We have seen the carry-over of many important crypto-specific themes from last year but very little in the way of new ‘top down’ narratives, which are crucial to the ‘hype cycles’ in this space,” Duong wrote in a note, meaning that the market may stay lukewarm until something exciting happens.

Crypto assets, just like other riskier areas of the market, have all been weighed down as the Federal Reserve and other global central banks raise interest rates to fight red-hot inflation. In this environment, Bitcoin hasn’t been able to break out in any meaningful way beyond the highs it came into the year