Bitcoin’s price is down 10% — New bear market or correction?

In today’s Market Report episode, analyst and writer Marcel Pechman covers the potential triggers to move Bitcoin’s price away from $27,000, including the United State Federal Reserve meeting on May 3. The show airs every Tuesday on the Cointelegraph Markets & Research YouTube channel.
The first news article discussed the catalysts for Bitcoin’s next move, including whether the Fed will follow the markets’ consensus of a 25-basis-point interest rate increase on May 3. The video analyzes how Bitcoin (BTC) should react to the central bank’s decision and explains how interest rates affect families and businesses.
In Pechman’s opinion, the correlation between Bitcoin and the stock market should decline considering the U.S. is nearing its debt limit and the economy is displaying signs of weakness and recession. Pechman does not believe there’s a rationale for Bitcoin trading at $25,000, as some analysts have suggested.
On to the show’s next topic, Pechman discusses Coinbase’s court action against the Securities and Exchange Commission. “Coinbase is looking to force the SEC to respond to its petition seeking rules for the crypto industry… asking the SEC to provide clarification about how it goes about classifying tokens as securities.”
According to Pechman, it seems like the tables have turned, as the regulator has been postponing its ruling and harassing exchanges without ever giving some direction on what sets the bar for tokens to become securities. The conclusion? This case can have a bigger impact than previously imagined because judges will take note of the SEC’s arguments.
In the last part of The Market Report, Pechman argues that Ether (ETH) is in a bad place due to average transaction fees above $4. Consequently, the total value locked (TVL) in Ethereum’s smart contracts in Ether terms plunged to their lowest levels since August 2020.
At the end of the show, Pechman focuses on Ether’s derivatives markets, more specifically the put-to-call options volume. Currently, the protective put options outnumber the neutral-to-bullish call options by more than four times. Judging by pro traders’ bearish view, Ether’s price will unlikely be able to sustain the $1,850 support.