Bitcoin pauses around record high levels; Ethereum, Cordano blaze ahead

The bellwether cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC), after a continuous march in price discovery into uncharted territory, appears to take a breather as the price seems to be consolidating around the recent highs.
As of 9:54 AM on Friday, May 23, Bitcoin was trading at around $110,886.55, lower by 0.40 per cent, with a 24-hour trading volume of $63.95 billion. Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin has moved within a range of $110,293.12 to $111,970.17, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin's market capitalisation stood at $2.2 trillion, making it the wor;ds largest cryptocurreny by market capitlasions.
Bitcoin faces resistance at $112,600
Bitcoin, Alankar Saxena, Co-founder and CTO of Mudrex, said, is stabilising around $111,500 after hitting a new all-time high of $111,970, entering uncharted territory with strong momentum. "Moreover, institutional inflows have helped BTC maintain sustained momentum, with Spot ETFs seeing over $600 million in net inflows in a day. Additionally, the US Dollar Index has dropped more than 2.6 per cent over the last 10 days, making crypto an attractive hedge against inflation," said Saxena.
For the flagship currency, Vikram Subburaj, CEO, Giottus Crypto Platform, believes that there are signs of continuation in the short term with $115,000 being the immediate target. "A pullback post this is likely given its overbought conditions, though the rally can extend like in December 2024. Market sentiment continues to strengthen with the Crypto Fear & Greed Index climbing to 78 (Extreme Greed)," said Subburaj.
Altcoins trade higher
Sentiments were favorable among other cryptocurrencies as well. Ethereum (ETH) was trading higher by 3.52 per cent at $2,713.79, with a trading volume of $26.97 billion. It has traded in the range of $2,603.36 - $2,731.22 in the last 24 hours. Ethereum's market capitalisation stood at $327.18 billion, marking it as the world's second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation.
That said, Ethereum is nearly 44 per cent lower from its all-time high of $4,891.70, scaled on November 16, 2021.
Among other popular altcoins, Cardano (ADA) was trading higher by 5.33 per cent, followed by Solana (SOL) up 4.69 per cent, Ripple (XRP) up 2.14 per cent, and Binance Coin (BNB) up 0.15 per cent. Meanwhile, the US dollar-linked stablecoin Tether was trading at $0.99, down 0.01 per cent.

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