Weekly Crypto Analysis: BTC & ETH Consolidating; Top Altcoins Bleeding as the Global Economy Suffers

2022/10/24 14:07:11

The crypto market’s total market cap didn’t move much compared to its previous week, which ended at $921 billion vs. ~$915 billion last week.
Bitcoin (BTC) continues its gradual consolidation with a slight boost of 0.2% this week.
Ether (ETH) showcased a decent surge of 3.5% in the past seven days.
Ripple (XRP), one of the prominent cryptos, lost nearly 5% of its value this past week.
The altcoin market struggled with many coins/tokens trading in the red except for a few.
TVL of the DeFi sector increased, and now it is at around $60 billion.

The crypto market closed at an overall uneventful week, fitting perfectly within an equally lifeless month. Most of the tokens have been consolidating to depreciating but not at an alarming rate. A few cryptos have surged, including ETH, but the gains aren’t notable either. This reflects in the total crypto market cap, as it barely changed in the past week, gaining only $3 billion.

Bitcoin (BTC) ended this week at around $19,400, which is almost the same as its previous week’s closing price - $19,300. The most valuable cryptocurrency has attempted to go beyond $20,000 this week as its price on Tuesday went as high as $19,700, only to drop again to $19,500s. Currently, the price is hovering around the $19,400 mark, and it is safe to say the market is under the control of bears.

Ether (ETH) saw an overall surge of 3.5%, ending the week in green after many disheartening red weeks. However, this 3.5% doesn’t contribute to damage control by any chance, as it is too small to please even its most loyal supporters. ETH is far behind (close to 200%) its glory days, as the price now is just above $1,300.

Looking at the altcoin market, Cardano (ADA) depreciated by 4%, Ripple (XRP) by 5%, and Solana (SOL) by 6%. Many other tokens in the altcoin market (including DOT and SHIB) also fell by a small percentage.

Cryptocurrency Market Heatmap | Source: Coin360

Many Metaverse tokens have followed the path of top altcoins with minor depreciations. Notable tokens in this sector, such as Axie Infinity, Decentraland, Theta, and Sandbox, saw a notable loss in their token values.

On the bright side, the total value locked (TVL) in the DeFi sector almost doubled to $60 billion, adding almost $26 billion to major DeFi protocols this week.

Top Altcoin Gainers and Losers

Top Altcoin Gainers

Huobi Token (HT) ➠ +30.40%

Klaytn (KLAY) ➠ +25.40%

Aave (AAVE) ➠ +16.86%

Top Altcoin Losers

Axie Infinity (AXS) ➠ -20.72%

Ethereum Naming Service (ENS) ➠ -13.80%

Quant (QNT) ➠ -11.68%

Fear & Greed Index at 22, Market Sentiment Bearish

Crypto fear and greed index continues to remain at 22 (same as the previous week) as the market didn’t see much movement. As you can see below, the ongoing crypto winter hampered the market sentiment, with “Extreme Fear” being the case for the past three months.

Fear & Greed Index | Source: Alternative

This Week’s News Highlights

Jack Dorsey Unveiled His New Social Media Project

Twitter founder and crypto/blockchain vehement Jack Dorsey announced his most anticipated social media project. This decentralized protocol is known as ATP - Authenticated Transport Protocol and is designed to give back control to users where they protect their data and identity when using social networking apps.

Spain Surpasses El Salvador

Spain beats El Salvador to become the third-largest crypto ATM hub in the world. With 215 active crypto ATMs, Spain now stands in third place with the most number of crypto ATM installations after the USA and Canada - a report from CoinATMRadar stated. This implies the level of crypto adoption in one of the strongest economies in Europe.

Do Kwon (Terra Founder) Takes The Blame

Do Kwon apologizes for his arrogant tweets as he agrees to take the blame for Terra’s catastrophe. In a recent interview, Terra's founder spoke about the platform’s unfortunate crash. He said that he takes complete responsibility for the crash and also mentioned that the fraud allegations against him are invalid.

Crypto Calendar: Events to Watch This Week

➺ 24/10/2022 - SGB - Flare Decentralization

➺ 25/10/2022 - SCRT - Secret Spaces

➺ 26/10/2022 - KAVA - Liquid Staking Mainnet

➺ 26/10/2022 - VLX - Wavelength DAO Launch

➺ 28/10/2022 - XCH - YouTube Live AMA

➺ 31/10/2022 - FLUX - Dual Snapshot

Bitcoin (BTC/USDT) Technical Analysis on the KuCoin Chart

The most valuable crypto pair, BTC/USD, is yet to make a major move in either of the directions as the price continues to move sideways for a few weeks now. The good news is that the consolidation could be ending soon, as technical analysis suggests that BTC could make a decisive move soon.

On the daily timeframe, BTC failed to break the $20k resistance multiple times in the past few weeks. The strong support level is at $18k, with primary resistance levels at $20k, $21k, and $24k. These significant S&R levels are determined by combining 100-MA & 200-MAs, which proved to be valid in most of the scenarios.

BTC/USDT Chart on the Daily Timeframe | Source: KuCoin

Despite Bitcoin breaking the long-term bearish trendline (the black slanting line in the above price chart), the price got stopped by another significant resistance level at $20k. We can consider the market to be bearish unless the price breaks the next three above-mentioned resistance levels.

If buyers manage to take the price beyond $24k, we can see a potential bullish scenario in the BTC/USDT pair. Contrarily, if sellers manage to take the price below $18k, the results will be catastrophic for BTC as the price could quickly go to $15k or lower.

As the cryptocurrency market continues to move sideways without taking any direction or making noteworthy changes, it is hard to determine when it will snap out. With the fears of global recession, high inflation, and political uncertainties in bigger economies like the UK, the crypto winter is expected to continue for at least the next few months.

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