Bitcoin failed to hold above the $50,000 mark and was down 4.2% over the past 24 hours.
The largest cryptocurrency was looking weak on Thursday, a day after CEOs from six major crypto firms spoke before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee.
The hearing, which clocked in as one of the longest Congressional hearings on crypto, lasted almost five hours. Nearly 40 lawmakers asked questions ranging from specific topics like stablecoin backing to broader areas like use cases in the crypto sector.
Bitcoin and Ethereum saw significant bids being stacked up following the hearing. However, this has since slowed down according to Matthew Dibb, Stack Funds’ chief operating officer.
Ether price
Ether (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was trading around $4,191 at press time, down 5% over the past 24 hours.
All eyes are currently on the ETH/BTC trading pair, according to Dibb. That’s the ratio between prices for ether and bitcoin, and it’s used to track the relative strength between the two cryptocurrencies.
The ratio rose even when the market crashed last weekend, rising around 13%, reaching a 3 1/2-year high and registering its best weekly performance since May.
Analysts pointed to several factors to explain the upward trajectory, one of them being Ethereum blockchain’s EIP-1559 upgrade implemented in August. That change has effectively reduced the net new supply of ether from the Ethereum blockchain, and it appeared to help ETH/BTC make gains in a risk-off environment.
ETH/BTC ratio
“ETH/BTC is showing a huge amount of outperformance since the start of November,” said Dibb.
Dibb said that if this strength continues, traders can expect the ETH/BTC ratio to hit 0.10 in Q1 of 2022. The ratio is currently at 0.8.
For altcoins, XRP was up 3% on the day, Terra’s LUNA by 0.19% and BNB was down 2.11% according to data source Messari.
In traditional markets, U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open in New York and European equities edged down as investors took into account new restrictions to battle the spread of the Omicron Covid-19 variant.
