BTC remains under pressure but there is no panic or extra emotions.

The connection might be the following: after the US published solid February data on its labour market, investors decided that the American economy was so strong that it might easily “survive” several rate hikes.

However, one should pay attention to a small detail: salary growth will boost inflation and it will be another reason for raising the rate. In mid-March, the Fed is planning to raise the rate by 25 basis points, away from zero. There might be 4-5 rate hikes during the year and the Fed is planning to cut its balance at the same time.

It’s a negative signal for the stock market because it implies less liquidity. The NASDAQ index is moving within the mid-term descending channel. it’s no time to panic yet, but the number of sales is quite big. The BTC has a direct correlation with NASDAQ.

Here is the connection: American markets are selling, the BTC is falling.

At the same time, it should be noted that the risk attitude is rather low now and that’s another factor against the BTC.

From the technical point of view, the BTC may easily return to $40,500 if S&P 500 and Nasdaq start recovering. Support levels are at $37,550 and $36,200. Resistance levels are at $43,000 and $45,500.

Bitcoin chart online

Altcoins: interest in blockchains and games

Not all cryptocurrencies are in confusion. For example, Bitmic, SIBCoin, and ArmzLegends rose pretty much over the past week.

Bitmic is a blockchain platform for creating metauniverses and NFT tokens. It’s quite a thing right now, that’s why interest in the project and its token might remain quite high. CIBCoin is a fork of Dash, which means that it also uses encryption systems for “shadowing” transactions. ArmzLegends is a blockchain-based game, where players may earn cryptocurrency for accomplishing tasks and missions.

Mining: things are now more complicated

Last week, the Bitcoin (BTC) mining difficulty adjustment has dropped 1.49%, for the first time in four months. According to Glassnode, the network hash rate lost almost 10%. Most likely, it’s the response to geopolitical tensions and concerns about the safety of mining farms that are located in conflict zones. The last time the mining difficulty dropped was in summer 2021, as a response to the actions of the Chinese authorities to ban cryptocurrency mining. However, the mining difficulty parameters recovered.