Bitcoin sags after its longest streak of monthly gains since 2021

BITCOIN slipped back Monday (May 1) after climbing for four consecutive months through April in the longest such winning run since 2021.

The token slid as much as 3.2 per cent and was trading at US$28,580 as at 12.28 pm in Tokyo. Smaller coins such as Ether, Solana and Polkadot also retreated, as did an index of the top 100 digital assets.

Bitcoin’s 73 per cent rebound in 2023 from last year’s crypto rout has stalled around the US$30,000 level as traders await further catalysts. The rally has been fuelled by bets on an eventual Federal Reserve pivot to looser monetary policy, as well as arguments that the US banking crisis eroded confidence in fiat currency.

First Republic Bank is at the centre of the latest leg of the banking woes in the US. Regulators worked into the night to try to resolve the situation, and the uncertainty restrained the mood in global markets.  

“The market is very jittery as it waits to see what happens to First Republic Bank,” said Adrian Przelozny, head of crypto exchange Independent Reserve. Monday’s Bitcoin wobble may be “just volatility related to this, and some long positions got liquidated as the market dropped a bit, which then cascaded.”

Bitcoin’s four-month stretch of gains through April ranks as the longest since a six-month advance to March 2021. In the past decade, four-month winning runs in Bitcoin foreshadowed an average surge of 260 per cent over the subsequent year, data compiled by Bloomberg shows. 

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Bitcoin and the wider crypto world remain exposed to a variety of risks, such as the US crackdown on the sector and the possibility of traders paring back expectations that monetary policy will become less restrictive later this year.

For now, the Fed is expected to boost interest rates by another quarter percentage point on Wednesday to damp inflation even as economic risks build. BLOOMBERG