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Altcoins need bitcoin boost to flourish: Crypto analyst

By Monte Stewart


Updated

Altcoin written over a photo of Manhattan, NY's skyline
Bitcoin's price needs to rise before altcoins can climb, says a leading analyst. - Photo Shutterstock

Altcoins need a bitcoin boost before they can rally from their recent price woes, says a leading crypto analyst.

Bitcoin is well down from its January price and recently languished 50% below its November peak. The world’s most valuable digital coin fell below $30,000 for a brief spell late Monday. Other cryptocurrencies, also in the doldrums, will not climb consistently, before bitcoin displays sustainable growth, Weiss Ratings analyst Alex Benfield told Capital.com.

BTC to USD

“Typically, the market follows bitcoin in whatever direction it’s going,” said Benfield. “Recently, bitcoin has been slipping a bit. Bitcoin’s down a little over 50% from its November high of $69,000 (£31,675.02). When bitcoin’s showing weakness like this, it’s very hard for other cryptocurrencies to rally.”

Bitcoin’s price woes have coincided with a stock market meltdown since the beginning of the 2022. As cryptocurrency investment has increased and been accepted by more traditional investors, bitcoin’s price has become more aligned with the Nasdaq, other stock markets, and macroeconomic forces.

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Not a safe haven

Alex BenfieldAlex Benfield, Weiss Ratings analyst (Photo courtesy of Alex Benfield)

Some analysts have contended that bitcoin’s increasing correlation with traditional finance contradicts the claim that the digital coin serves as a safe haven against inflation and other macroeconomic influences.

Accordingly, altcoins have also become more prone to traditional trends.

Price boom unlikely

“So until bitcoin finds its ground – stops falling a bit – I don’t think it’s very likely that other cryptocurrencies are really going to start climbing again,” said Benfield. “You might get little bursts here and there from different altcoins, but you’re not going to see anything like an alt season, or a big boom in prices among certain sectors of cryptocurrencies until bitcoin really finds stable ground.”

TRX to USD

As Capital.com has reported, unus sed leo (LEOand tron (TRX) have stood out from the altcoin crowd. LEO and TRX are the only altcoins among the top 100 cryptocurrency gainers that have stayed in the green this year.

BTC/USD

26,451.45 Price
+0.640% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 21:00 (UTC)
Spread 85.00

Oil - Crude

92.46 Price
-0.400% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee 0.0587%
Short position overnight fee -0.0806%
Overnight fee time 21:00 (UTC)
Spread 0.030

XRP/USD

0.51 Price
-0.790% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0753%
Short position overnight fee 0.0069%
Overnight fee time 21:00 (UTC)
Spread 0.01192

ETH/USD

1,623.29 Price
+1.580% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 21:00 (UTC)
Spread 5.40

However, Benfield believes that LEO’s and TRX’s success will be shortlived.

“We see this from time to time,” he said. “You’ll get a little bit of separation temporarily, maybe a week or two. You’ll get an ongoing little rally here even though the rest of the market’s showing weakness."

 

Continued Benfield: "Until you see a sustained general trend among Tron or LEO, it’s hard to say that there’s any sort of big movement behind this.

“I would expect Tron to fall back in line. I don’t expect it to really sustain a strong rally at this point.”

But LEO continued to buck the trend Tuesday as it was up about 8.75% in early afternoon trading in North America. Meanwhile, TRX rose about 10%.

Markets in this article

BTC/USD
Bitcoin / USD
26451.45 USD
168.7 +0.640%
TRX/USD
TRON / USD
0.08678 USD
-0.00061 -0.720%
LEO/USD
UNUS SED LEO to US Dollar
3.7617 USD
-0.0495 -1.330%

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The difference between trading assets and CFDs
The main difference between CFD trading and trading assets, such as commodities and stocks, is that you don’t own the underlying asset when you trade on a CFD.
You can still benefit if the market moves in your favour, or make a loss if it moves against you. However, with traditional trading you enter a contract to exchange the legal ownership of the individual shares or the commodities for money, and you own this until you sell it again.
CFDs are leveraged products, which means that you only need to deposit a percentage of the full value of the CFD trade in order to open a position. But with traditional trading, you buy the assets for the full amount. In the UK, there is no stamp duty on CFD trading, but there is when you buy stocks, for example.
CFDs attract overnight costs to hold the trades (unless you use 1-1 leverage), which makes them more suited to short-term trading opportunities. Stocks and commodities are more normally bought and held for longer. You might also pay a broker commission or fees when buying and selling assets direct and you’d need somewhere to store them safely.
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