Major cryptocurrencies traded mixed on Thursday, with Bitcoin and Ethereum taking a breather, signaling the onset of the profit-taking season.

What Happened: Bitcoin skyrocketed by  44% in February, surging past the $50,000 and $60,000 milestones for the first time in years, and reaching $64,000 on Wednesday.

In the last 24 hours, 114,440 traders faced liquidation, resulting in a total of $339.26 million in liquidated assets. The most significant liquidation occurred on Bitmex, involving the DOGE-USD with a value of $5.87 million.

CoinGlass data reveals that BTC longs amounting to $56 million were liquidated, and an additional $34 million in long positions were impacted during the same period.

The trading frenzy for U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs continued on Thursday, following the largest single-day net inflow on Wednesday. BlackRock’s IBIT (NASDAQ:IBIT), which ranks second in asset total among Bitcoin ETFs, maintained its position in the top 10 most-traded ETFs in the US by midday on Thursday. Barchart data revealed that it recorded over $1 billion in trading volume for the fourth consecutive day.

Top Gainers (24 Hour)

The global cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $2.32 trillion, showing a 5.76% increase in the past 24 hours.

The Nasdaq Composite surged on Thursday, reaching its first record high since November 2021. It soared 0.90% to close at 16,091.92, buoyed by the rally of tech stocks and chips at the end of the trading day. 

Simultaneously, the S&P 500 also climbed 0.52% to conclude at 5,096.27. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up by 0.12% to 38,996.39.

Economic data released on Thursday revealed that the Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation remained persistently above the central bank’s target in January, although it did not surpass Wall Street’s expectations. Additionally, there were indications of robust consumer spending. 

The core personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s favored inflation metric, rose by 0.4% for the month and 2.8% from a year earlier, aligning with Dow Jones estimates. The headline PCE, which encompasses food and energy categories, increased by 0.3% monthly and 2.4% annually, in line with respective forecasts for 0.3% and 2.4%.

On Thursday, crypto mining companies including Marathon Digital experienced a 15% decline, Riot Platforms saw a 10% drop. CleanSpark and Cipher Mining were down by 9% and 8% respectively, and Iris Energy retreated by 3%.

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Analyst Notes: Cryptocurrency analyst Michael Van de Poppe said the market capitalization of altcoins is gradually ascending, indicating positive movement.

"The upside could be captured on Bitcoin, meaning a rotation towards altcoins. Therefore, Ethereum to $4,500-5,000 is likely, while altcoins will accelerate with 2-4x returns."

The analyst’s prediction for BTC suggests that in the event of a pullback, Bitcoin could potentially drop to as low as $46,000.

"Bitcoin manages to reach a $670 million net inflow.  Mostly, this is coming through Blackrock's ETF (exchange-traded fund) and interest. The price is $62,600, with insanely strong movements before the halving. What to look for? If a correction happens, I aim at $46,000 or $53,000 for longs."

Analyst Tony Sycamore from the IG Markets brokerage firm, said, "Momentum in Bitcoin points to a test and possible breakout of $69,000. This will push Bitcoin beyond the record high of $69,000 set in the heady days of crypto peaks in November 2021."

Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at Galaxy, expressed a bullish outlook, stating, “We haven’t even begun to reach the heights this is likely to go.” Thorn emphasized the potential impact of U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, referring to them as a “game changer” that would generate consistent and rapidly growing demand for BTC.

On-chain analyst Ali Martinez said that TD Sequential is signaling a sell alert on the 4-hour chart for Bitcoin. TD Sequential is a technical analysis indicator used to predict potential price exhaustion and trend reversals in the crypto market. It consists of a series of counts, typically up to 9 and 13, to identify buy and sell signals.

"Since Feb 15, every sell signal from this indicator has been spot-on, leading to $BTC price corrections between 1.50% and 4.20%. This is a pattern worth noting for traders eyeing short-term movements!"

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