Aave and Chainlink hit new highs as Bitcoin price fights to hold $32K

Bitcoin (BTC) price opened the weekend trapped within the $33,500 to $32,000 range but at the time of writing the digital asset is struggling to hold above $32,000. 

A few analysts have warned that the recent price loss of momentum may be a sign of ‘institutional exhaustion’ as selling pressure from Asia has increased since Jan. 19.

Despite Bitcoin’s current downtrend, some institutional investors are sticking to their prediction that BTC price will reach $100,000 before the end of 2021. This suggests that institutions are buoyed by rising investor sentiment and the new proposals for a Bitcoin ETF.

While Bitcoin still faces resistance around the $33,000 level, on-chain analyst Willy Woo sees one potentially positive development for BTC. Woo said that the Bitcoin Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR), a metric that shows the profit ratio of BTC by dividing the price sold by the price paid, had “a touchdown”.

According to Woo there was a:

“Full on-chain SOPR reset. Coins moving between investors per hour (24h MA) no longer carry profit on average. To push SOPR lower, investors would have to be willing to sell at a loss.”

Woo also suggested that investors are less likely to sell at a loss, an early signal that Bitcoin could be close to finding a bottom.

Altcoins and DeFi tokens soar

DeFi tokens and altcoins continued to forge their own path as Bitcoin searched for support. Polkadot (DOT), AAVE, Curve DAO Token (CRV) and Sushiswap (SUSHI) all rallied roughly 5% to 7%.

The surge in the price of many DeFi-related tokens has in large part been the result of an increase in DEX activity. Data from Dune Analytics shows monthly DEX volumes have increased since July 2020 and currently the total value locked in DeFi is at $23.89 billion.

Chainlink (LINK) continued its strong rally, setting a new all-time high at $25.50 and surpassing Litecoin (LTC) in terms of total market cap to become the seventh-largest project listed on CoinMarketCap. Aave price also broke to a new all-time high at $229.39 and the total value locked in the platform is $3.44 billion.

The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $936.8 billion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 63.5%.