March started disconnected connected a debased owed to a resurrection of inflationary fears. On March 7, hawkish comments from U.S. Federal Reserve president Jerome Powell amplified the market's anticipation of a 50-basis constituent hike successful the upcoming argumentation complaint gathering connected March 22 to March 23.
On March 8, the U.S. government's $1 cardinal Bitcoin (BTC) transfer of assets seized from Silk Road sparked fears of a sell-off. Later connected the aforesaid day, the largest crypto-friendly slope confirmed its illness and planned to liquidate its crypto positions voluntarily. The week's events sent Bitcoin's terms to a two-week debased of $20,050.
A spike successful antagonistic sentiment whitethorn preclude a bounce
The flurry of atrocious quality and terms drops caused a important dip successful CryptoQuant's Coinbase premium index, which measures the quality successful trading prices connected Coinbase and Binance. Higher prices bespeak stronger request successful the U.S. versus the remainder of the world. The premium dipped to a two-month debased connected the greeting of March 9 arsenic antagonistic quality piled on.
On-chain analytics firm, Santiment, reported fear, uncertainty and uncertainty (FUD) settling successful the markets, expanding the "probabilities" of contrarian terms bounces during this "period of disbelief."
However, the backing complaint for BTC perpetual swaps is inactive neutral, with nary large liquidations successful the futures market. It doesn’t amusement sizeable antagonistic bias to suggest the anticipation of a abbreviated squeeze. The Fear and Greed Index besides slipped to two-month lows of 44 but stayed good supra historical bounce levels betwixt 10 to 25. It suggests that immoderate affirmative rallies are apt to beryllium short-lived.
Besides antagonistic sentiment, on-chain information shows affirmative accumulation among the astir captious stakeholders, miners and whales. The holdings of Bitcoin miners person been connected the emergence since the commencement of 2023, arsenic it reaches a six-month peak. Glassnode information besides shows an summation successful the fig of Bitcoin wallets with much than 1,000 BTC.
The on-chain Realized Price of BTC, which represents the mean regular dollars moved done the Bitcoin network, presently sits astatine $19,800. Historically, this on-chain metric has formed a important bull-bear pivot line. If the prices descent backmost beneath this level, it could invalidate the aboriginal 2023 gains and propulsion the marketplace backmost into a semipermanent bearish trend.
The elephant successful the room: Fed complaint hikes
The Fed’s upcoming complaint hike is the astir important portion of the puzzle that traders request to lick earlier placing their bets. A higher CPI people connected March 14 tin nonstop the planetary markets to a risk-off situation starring to the Fed gathering aboriginal during the month.
Technically, the BTC/USD broke beneath February lows of $21,400, triggering wider sell-off toward the $20,650 enactment level. The brace tin gaffe backmost into a carnivore inclination toward 2022 lows if this enactment breaks. Consecutive regular closes beneath this level volition beryllium a beardown bearish sign.

The compilation of antagonistic quality implicit a bearish macroeconomic mounting has led to an summation successful marketplace volatility, which could apt substance a short-term upside bounce. However, the market’s absorption to the CPI people and Fed’s argumentation complaint determination successful during March stay important to momentum traders.
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed present are the authors’ unsocial and bash not needfully bespeak oregon correspond the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
This nonfiction does not incorporate concern proposal oregon recommendations. Every concern and trading determination involves risk, and readers should behaviour their ain probe erstwhile making a decision.