As K33 Research noted, Bitcoin has been trading in an increasingly narrow spread over the last six weeks, immune to macroeconomic and industry events. “A deep crypto sleep tends to be followed by a violent wake-up,” K33 Senior Analyst Vetle Lunde wrote. “The market is clearly in an unprecedented stable stage, which has typically acted as a massive pressure valve for volatility once it finally reignites.”
Ether, Ripple’s XRP token, and ADA, the native crypto of smart-contracts platform Cardano, were all trading in a range-bound manner, with a reddish tint to the market. The CoinDesk Market Index was recently down 0.35%.
K33 Research also noted that Bitcoin’s five-day volatility earlier this week had sunk to below that of the S&P, gold, and the Nasdaq 100. Lunde pointed out that every occasion preceded periods of wild price swings.
The total supply of Bitcoin last active more than one year ago has also declined recently according to on-chain analytics firm Glassnode. This indicates that some longer-term holders have decided to reduce their holdings.
Noelle Acheson (CoinDesk’s former head of research) called crypto markets’ recent monotony even as significant events swirled “bewildering,” but quipped: “I’ve been covering this market long enough to be able to confirm that, anecdotally, whenever we start joking about BTC being a stablecoin, things turn fast.”