Ethereum: price recovers January highs

Thanks to an impressive performance on Sunday, the price of Ethereum managed to recover the highs reached at the beginning of last week, closing the week above parity and gaining 1% point in 7 days. 

Since the beginning of the year, the prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum have performed respectively 40% and more than 30% for the queen of altcoins when calculating current values.

The rise has given a jolt of energy to crypto investors, with the Fear&Greed index measuring the well-being of traders reaching a level of 62 points in recent hours, the likes of which have not been seen since November 2021 when Bitcoin & Co. set absolute all-time highs.

In addition, the Aptos (APT) token is attracting the attention of investors, with a gain of more than 400% in just four weeks and a value that has risen from $3.4 to more than $20 in recent hours.

Why is Aptos (APT) rising rapidly?

The reasons why APT’s value is soaring are not entirely clear, but there are good reasons to support it:

Reason 1: Arbitrage

According to CoinGecko, about half of APT’s $2 billion volume in the past 24 hours has come from trading the pair in South Korean won on Singapore’s UpBit exchange platform.

The price of APT on UpBit is currently $18.72, while on Coinbase it is $17.94. This difference of 78 cents could be leveraged by those who buy APT on Coinbase and sell it on UpBit for a profit. This increases the demand and consequently the price of APT.

Reason 2: Growth exchanges

Aptos is the 20th largest DeFi ecosystem, but it has experienced significant growth in recent months. DeFi volume on Aptos increased from $14 million last month to $51 million in January. This kind of metric should raise the price of a token, just like when an app goes from a few hundred to thousands of users.

Reason 3: Liquidity pool

On 20 January, the Binance Liquid Swap platform launched its APT/Tether and APT/Bitcoin liquidity pools. Basically, users can lock their APT through Binance and earn interest on them. This could contribute to token price increases.

It is important to note that when prices rise rapidly as in this case, they can also collapse in the same way. 

In any case, January’s performance and future prospects for a possible slowdown in interest rates – anticipation of the markets is growing for the US FED’s decision on Wednesday, 1 February, on raising interest rates – contribute to the fact that crypto investors remain confident in the medium- to long-term growth of the sector.

Price analysis of Bitcoin

A few hours before the weekly close yesterday, Sunday, 29 January, the price of Bitcoin touched the 24k mark for the first time since 15 August.

In just a few days, the queen of cryptocurrencies swept the sinking caused between last November and December by the crisis of the FTX exchange and its sister company Alameda Research, returning to the levels of last summer’s relative highs that gave hope for a return of the bull.

A bull that after more than a year’s absence is showing its vibrancy by beginning to regain the scene with Bitcoin so far outperforming the major altcoins.

In the week of transition between January and February it will be necessary to consolidate the support area built last week just above 22,400.

If the setting of the technical and cyclical structure is confirmed, it is essential to reach Friday 6 February, absorbing with the low of recent years any possible descent in line with the closing of the biweekly cycle that began on Wednesday 25 January. 

Price analysis of Ethereum

Over the past week, the price of ETH has again tried to push above $1,600, but each attempt so far has proven to lack valid buying volume support, causing technical confirmation to fail with the daily close above this psychological level.

Indeed, yesterday’s daily and weekly close, Sunday, 29 January, at $1,644 was reabsorbed by the early hours of the day, pushing prices back below $1,600 at the time of writing.

For the coming days of the week for Ethereum (ETH) it will be necessary to consolidate the base of support built last week between $1,500 and $1,550.

Confirmation of this hypothesis would launch ETH’s prices above the recent highs of $1,680 USD on 21 January, creating a double high with the early November prices.

Otherwise, it will be necessary to wait to realize a viable support before the $1,300, currently the only reference support level for medium- and long-term operations.