Bitcoin enters a correction period, Solana ecosystem sucks blood from the market

The crypto market continued to retreat on Monday. After a brief drop to around $65,000 over the weekend, Bitcoin rebounded slightly and consolidated around $67,000-68,000, a drop of more than 8% from its previous all-time high. Ethereum fell below $3,500 at one point, but recovered to above $3,500 by the closing time of U.S. stocks, a 24-hour drop of nearly 3%.

Among the top 10 altcoins by market capitalization, only Solana (SOL) and Avalanche (AVAX) achieved positive returns in the past 24 hours. Dogecoin fell the most, by 6%, while BNB, ADA and others fell by around 3%.

Solana Ecosystem Bloodsucking Market

Data tracked by Santiment shows that SOL and the meme token The Book of Meme ( BOME ) built on Solana are the most popular tokens in the past two days.

The price of SOL has surged 45% in seven days, breaking through $200 for the first time since December 2021, though it remains below its all-time high of $259.96 in November 2021.

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance launched BOME perpetual futures on March 16. BOME has soared 82% since its listing on March 10.

Santiment said in its market report: "BOME and SOL are two of the most popular assets on X, Reddit, Telegram, and 4Chan as they have recently outperformed the market. People still see Solana and its meme coins as viable alternatives to Ethereum ecosystem projects."

According to Santiment, the number of mentions of "SOL" on social media has risen to 322. Meanwhile, Google Trends (which measures interest in trending topics) once showed a value of 100 for the global search query "solana" . A score of 100 represents the maximum number of searches for a term observed in a given time frame. This shows that more and more people are browsing for information about solana on the web.

The heat of the Solana ecosystem will echo its rebounding coin price. Data tracked by Top Ledger and OurNetwork show that the trading volume of Solana-based decentralized exchanges has reached US$30 billion this month, a tenfold increase from a year ago.

BTC is in a correction period before halving, Standard Chartered Bank predicts that it will reach $150,000 by the end of the year

Some analysts believe that based on historical trends, Bitcoin is in a correction period before the halving.

Crypto trader and independent analyst Rekt Capital posted on X that the ongoing price movement is part of a pre-halving pullback, with BTC falling 38% and 20% during the 2016 and 2020 halving cycles.

Lucas Kiely, chief investment officer of Yield App, also warned that Bitcoin is entering a “danger zone” before the halving.

Kiely believes: "Bitcoin's price action over the past week is a preview of future turbulence and a clear signal to fasten our seat belts as we enter the 'danger zone' before the halving. BTC plunged 40% in 2016 and 20% in 2020 a few days before the halving, and we are just preparing for the price action before the halving in this cycle." Kiely predicts that Bitcoin may experience a 20% correction and continue to fluctuate around $60,0000.

However, Standard Chartered Bank raised its year-end price forecast for Bitcoin from $100,000 to $150,000, and expects BTC to reach a cycle high of $250,000 in 2025 and then stabilize at around $200,000.

Standard Chartered has become one of the more Bitcoin-friendly traditional banks, with an active Bitcoin research team. Analysts at the bank have previously predicted that the price of Bitcoin will reach $100,000 by the end of 2024.

Standard Chartered’s analysis is based on a comparison with the price of gold after the launch of a gold ETF in the United States, as well as the correlation between ETF inflows and BTC prices. “We believe that the gold analogy — in terms of ETF impact and optimal portfolio — remains a good starting point for estimating the ‘correct’ medium-term price level for Bitcoin,” the report said.

In a separate report, Standard Chartered said that a spot Ethereum ETF, expected to be approved on May 23, would lead to inflows of up to $45 billion in the first 12 months and push Ethereum prices to $8,000 by the end of 2024.

“By 2025, we expect the ETH to BTC price ratio to recover to the 7% level seen during most of 2021-22,” the report said. “Given our estimate of a BTC price level of $200,000 by the end of 2025, this implies an ETH price of $14,000.”

The pre-halving pullback coincides with the end of the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on March 20, with investors focusing on possible interest rate cut signals from the Federal Reserve after inflation data exceeded expectations last week .

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economists have changed their forecasts for Fed rate cuts, predicting three cuts this year instead of the previously predicted four, and the swap market has also lowered its bets on Fed rate cuts, now showing less than a 50% chance of a 25 basis point cut in June.

To date, the price of Bitcoin continues to be directly affected by macroeconomic events, and further regulatory actions and Federal Reserve monetary policy may also continue to have an impact on the price of Bitcoin.