Bitcoin succumbed to renewed macro pressure on March 4 after bulls failed to hold $42,000 for long.
BTC/USD 1-hour candlestick chart (Bitstamp) Source: TradingView
European shares open lower on Friday
BTC/USD hit a low of $40,800 on Bitstamp on Friday following a major options expiration event, according to Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.
Overnight performance initially showed a recovery but was held back by fears of a fire at a nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
Stock futures fell on the news, whose seriousness was then called into question.
In Germany, the DAX hit a one-year low at the daily open, while the S&P 500 was yet to start trading.
Market commentator Holger Zschaepitz noted: "From the recent high, the index is down 17%, far outpacing the S&P 500."
"Investors are turning their back on Europe as the risk of stagflation grows. That means Europe's comeback has failed again."
In Europe, attention was also on commodities, with natural gas hitting new highs again on March 3. The same goes for inflation.
Clearly, inflation data is no longer as important to central bank policy forecasts. Data out this morning showed that Italian inflation surged to a record for the third straight month, rising to 6.2% in February, compared with expectations for 5.5.%. However, Italian two-year bond yields are plummeting.
— Lisa Abramowicz (@lisaabramowicz1) March 1, 2022
So the cautious Crypto Ed is a little uneasy about Bitcoin's near-term predictions.
“So, a fifth wave (up) is really needed. Further down from here would be bad news for the possibility of a fifth wave (up)… especially with another dip below 40k we can skip the bullish sentiment and go Start looking for short positions," he warned on the day.
"Bullish above 42k, bearish below 40k."
Short-term performance of altcoins cannot be relaxed
As Bitcoin continues to fall and altcoins generally suffer losses, attention is focused on Ethereum and its trend with Bitcoin.
ETH/BTC 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp) Source: TradingView
News that Metamask is preparing to block ETH transactions in Venezuela to comply with government regulations further dampened market sentiment.
“By default, MetaMask accesses the blockchain through Infura, which is not available in some jurisdictions due to legal compliance,” a blog post published Thursday announced.
Among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, Solana (SOL) saw the biggest daily loss, falling nearly 7%.
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