The crypto market recovered on April 4 after a flash crash earlier this week sank most top-cap cryptocurrencies by as much as 10%.
Bitcoin (BTC) rallied 3.4% to an intra-day high of $67,990, while Ether (ETH) remained flat, up only 0.65% to $3,330, according to data from Coin360. This performance reduced Bitcoin’s dominance to 51.64%.
Cryptocurrency 24-hour performance. Source: Coin360
The global crypto market capitalization was up by 2.74% over the last 24 hours to rest at $2.54 trillion.
On Thursday, April 4, Bitcoin hovered around its old all-time high of $69,000, reached in November 2021. It had been pushing higher for months — up 146% over the past six months — and tumbled shortly after hitting the new high at $73,835 on March 14.
BTC/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView
Ether, the second biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has been following in Bitcoin’s footsteps. It fell as much as 12% between April 1 and 2 before recovering to the current levels.
Broadly speaking, most top 10 cryptocurrencies are flashing green with the most notable gains over the last 24 hours being witnessed by BNB Chain’s BNB, which was up 5.5%, and Dogecoin (DOGE), which has climbed 4%.
Apart from Dogecoin, other top-cap memecoins were also on the rise. Shiba Inu (SHIB) posted over 6% over the last 24 hours to trade at $0.00002809. Solana-based memecoins Bonk (BONK) and Dogwifhat (WIF) recorded 4.7% and 1.2% gains over the same timeframe, respectively.
The only notable depreciation over the last seven days fell upon holders of Book of Meme (BOME) and Cat in a Dogs World (MEW). BOME fell 2.7% to $0.00002368, while MEW crashed 17.9% to $0.005769.
Encouraging U.S. Jobs Claims data could boost investor sentiment
The uptick in the crypto market is mainly fueled by weak Initial Jobless Claims print in the United States. Despite the weak figures, the U.S. labor market displays resilience, as does the overall economy.
According to data from Marketwatch, weekly unemployment claims in the U.S. climbed to 221,000 for the week ending March 30, up from 211,000 recorded the week prior. This was higher than the value of 214,000 expected by market analysts, adding impetus to the upward market movement.
Related: Bitcoin suddenly erases April dip as BTC price jumps 5% above $69K
Given this slowdown in the service sector, the U.S. Federal Reserve might consider delaying the start of the interest rate easing cycle.
The CME FedWatch Tool now sees an 89% possibility of keeping the Fed funds rate unchanged in May, while chances of a rate cut are at 10.8%.
Target rate probabilities for May 1, 2024 Fed meeting. Source: CME
Leveraged liquidations drive crypto prices higher
The rise in the prices of major cryptocurrencies has led to a rush of liquidations across the derivatives market. Derivatives traders appear to have been caught off guard, leading to a quick spat of leveraged liquidations.
In the past 24 hours, over $201 million in crypto positions have been liquidated across the crypto market, with $38 million wiped out in the previous 1 hour.
Crypto market liquidations. Source: Coinglass
Over 68,452 traders were liquidated, with the largest single liquidation being Ether/USD on OKX, valued at $6 million.