Bitcoin (BTC) prices remained little changed over the weekend, hovering around the $52,000 level on relatively lower trading volumes compared to the weekdays.
The price action was in line with a recent trend of low volatility over the weekends following the issuance of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. in January, which seemingly changed the market structure for bitcoin trading.
However, other major tokens, such as ether (ETH) and Polygon’s MATIC, recorded higher gains, rising more than 5% since Friday. Ether likely gained as expectations of an ether ETF product offering the asset to U.S. investors bumped up – a narrative that has boosted the Ethereum ecosystem in recent weeks.
Artificial intelligence (AI)-related tokens, such as Worldcoin’s WLD, Fetch AI’s FET, Bittensor’s TAO, and Sleepless AI’s AI, jumped as much as 10% as technology firm OpenAI revealed its text-to-video generator Sora, sparking a run in the AI sector.
Meanwhile, some market observers are targeting a short-term level of $55,000 for bitcoin, with a long-term call of $70,000.
“Bitcoin is nearing its peak and will likely be pushing for $55,000 in the coming weeks,” Ed Hindi, Chief Investment Officer at Tyr Capital, told CoinDesk in an email. “In 2024, we expect bitcoin to rally to its all-time highs, reaching the $70,000 mark early this year.”
However, Hindi added that ether will likely see much hype for its potentially larger upside and investment opportunities in the coming months.
“The real hype will be around Ethereum. With the potential introduction of an Ether spot-ETF in the U.S., in tandem with the increased global appetite for DeFi – $5,000 for ETH in 2024 could very well be a realistic objective,” he added.