Bitcoin Stays Still Above $17,000 But Ethereum Continues To Outperform BTC Gain

Bitcoin (BTC), the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, showed strength over the past few days as it maintained trading within the $17,000 level. But, it appears that Ethereum (ETH), the world's second-largest crypto asset by market cap, outperformed BTC in terms of gains.

Bitcoin clung above the $17,000 price level on Sunday as the market hoped for a more dovish decision about an interest rate hike from the U.S. Central Bank. The recent uptrend in BTC's price mirrored investor optimism amid fear, uncertainties and doubt hovering over the industry following the FTX meltdown.

As the week started, BTC traded near $17,300, showing a nearly 2% spike, consistent with its performance over the past several days. BTC entered the $17,000 level on Wednesday after the U.S. Central Bank Chair Jerome Powell suggested that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) would raise interest rates by 50 basis points (bps) instead of the current 75 bps increase.

Before Powell's speech, the minutes of the latest meeting of federal officials were published online, causing a spike in the price of major crypto assets, including Bitcoin. In the minutes' summary, some officials mentioned that "slowing the pace of increase could reduce the risk of instability in the financial system," while several others said they would like to wait before easing the pace up.

There is also a comment noting that, "the uncertain lags and magnitudes associated with the effects of monetary policy actions on economic activity and inflation were among the reasons cited regarding why such an assessment was important."

The market's optimism following Powell's speech could see Bitcoin "consolidating above $17k and possibly testing $20k before we expect a sustained recovery," BitBull CEO Joe DiPasquale said. However, he also noted that "on the downside, $16K is a key support, losing which we are likely to see Bitcoin trending lower."

Bitcoin was trading up 1.98% at $17,355.77 with a 24-hour volume of $20,405,012,073 as of 3:30 a.m. ET on Monday, based on the latest data from CoinMarketCap. The maiden crypto has shown stable but meager gains over the past few days.

Meanwhile, Ethereum showed stability and even outperformed Bitcoin gains with a 15.4% increase against BTC's 7.7% price spike over the past 10 days. On Monday, at 3:45 a.m. ET, ETH saw a 3.30% rise and traded at $1,301.97 with a 24-hour volume of $5,631,342,879, based on the latest data from CoinMarketCap. Once again, Ethereum outperformed BTC with a 3.3% gain versus Bitcoin's 1.98% spike.

Since early November, the cryptocurrency industry has been fixing its eyes on the wider effect of the spectacular collapse of the crypto derivatives exchange FTX. Bitcoin, which traded at the $69,000 level in November last year, struggled to climb back to higher price levels last month when it hit a new 2-week low of $15,000.

However, this meager but steady and continuous gain in BTC is encouraging for many investors, who are still reeling from their losses from the prolonged bear market and the crypto winter dragged by the implosion of FTX.