Weekly Crypto Analysis: BTC Passes $22K; Ethereum and Celsius in Highlights

2022/07/18 13:01:04

The cryptocurrency market has recovered slightly from the same time the previous week, with Bitcoin (BTC) consolidating higher after the Wall Street trading week finished with slight gains for United States equities. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap managed to break the $22,000 mark, but failed to head past the $22,900 resistance we mentioned in the previous week’s weekly analysis.

With that said, the global crypto market capitalization has passed $1 trillion once again, pushing up from $916 billion from the past week. Bitcoin has not broken the strong support level, which sits at $22,900 yet, meaning that the upwards momentum may be short-lived.

The overall market is still slowly moving away from stablecoins due to the crypto market’s gains. However, USDT and USDC are leading the game. Current exchange inflows are larger than outflows.

Considering the overall bearish undertone in the crypto market, head over to KuCoin’s guide on Top 5 Moves to Make in a Crypto Bear Market and learn how to handle market downturns and end up in profit. Let's go deeper and take a look at the most recent crypto market news and Bitcoin's technical outlook.

Crypto Market Overview

Bitcoin’s price is currently positive, both on the daily and weekly time frames. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap is up 4.11% on the day, and 6.86% on the week. When it comes to market dominance, Bitcoin now holds 40.65% of the market, down from 42.90% the previous week. This is mostly due to altcoins gaining traction and increasing in price, with some of them gaining up to 150%. On Monday, the leading cryptocurrency pair, BTC/USD, is trading at $22,261.73, while Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has increased its price to $1,489.67, up 29.56% in the past seven days.

Lido DAO (LDO) has rocketed in the past week, recording gains of 159.67%, followed by Polygon’s 63.64% and Ethereum Classic’s 53.33% gains.

Cryptocurrency Market Heatmap | Source: Coin360

Last week's worst performers ended up being TerraClassicUSD (USTC), as well as Pax Gold. USTC is down 12.46% to $0.05, and PAXG fell 4.66% to $1,715.

The cryptocurrency market remains risk-off due to a series of events we will explore below.

Top Altcoin Gainers and Losers

Top Altcoin Gainers:

⧫ Lido DAO (LDO) ➠ 159.67%

⧫ Polygon (MATIC) ➠ 63.64%

⧫ Ethereum Classic (ETC) ➠ 53.33%

Top Altcoin Losers:

⧫ TerraClassicUSD (USTC) ➠ 12.46%

⧫ Pax Gold (PAXG) ➠ 4.66%

News Highlights

Here are some of the events that made the previous week's crypto news section stand out:

BTC Bulls vs. Bears: Overview

It seems that there are as many different predictions as there are analysts in the crypto market. We are here to highlight two of the most prominent.

Grayscale Investment's latest report shows that the crypto winter could last another 250 days if previous market cycles are to repeat themselves in the same fashion. Grayscale notes that the cryptocurrency market mimics its conventional counterparts with cyclical movements.

On the other hand, Glassnode reports that over 80% of the total USD-denominated wealth invested in Bitcoin has been HODLed for at least 3-months. This signifies that most of the BTC coin supply is dormant and that the way holders are playing this out resembles previous market bottoms.

Celsius Files for Bankruptcy

Celsius, the centralized crypto lending platform led by Alex Mashinsky, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 13. The platform had customer funds locked up for several weeks now, but previously claimed to be more trustworthy and safer than a bank - in fact, most of its marketing was tied to them being better than banks.

According to an email received by all Celsius customers, the company voluntarily filed petitions for Chapter 11 reorganization. They have used the same firm as Voyager Digital for its bankruptcy proceedings.

While it is still unclear what will happen with users’ funds at this stage, it’s a fact that Celsius’ balance sheet shows a $1.2 billion hole.

Polygon Selected to Participate in Disney’s Accelerator Program

Polygon managed to get an invitation to Disney’s prestigious 2022 accelerator program. This Ethereum-based layer 2 scaling solution was the only blockchain to receive an invite despite this year’s program being focused on different technologies, such as augmented reality (AR), NFTs, and AI.

Ethereum Devs Announced Ethereum Merge Date

Ethereum developers publicly announced the blockchain’s transition from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. The expected merge date the developers have mentioned is September 19, 2022.

While the community now has a date they can look forward to, this merge timeline isn't final, but rather an expected merge date, and that Ethereum supporters should wait for an official confirmation of the timeline.

This caused the price of Ethereum to spike close to 30% in the past week, and over 22% since the announcement. However, analysts are stating that the current rally is unsustainable, and that traders and holders should expect a push towards the downside despite a strong short-term outlook.

Crypto Calendar: Events to Watch This Week

➺ 18/07/2022 - New Submission Fee (MANA)

➺ 19/07/2022 - ETHCC 5 Conference (ETH)

➺ 19/07/2022 - Youtube Live AMA (GALA)

➺ 19/07/2022 - Community Call (BAT)

➺ 21/07/2022 - TezDev Paris (XTZ)

➺ 21/07/2022 - ReDeFiNE Tomorrow 2022 (AAVE)

➺ 22/07/2022 - Sustainable Blockchain (CRYPTO)

USDT and USDC Slowly Losing Dominance

The top two Stablecoins by market capitalization, USDT, and USDC, while still holding the 3rd and 4th place in the market capitalization rankings, respectively, are slowly losing their market dominance over the past few weeks.

The past week has been incredibly impactful, with numerous cryptocurrencies posting double-digit gains, and almost every cryptocurrency in the top 100 being in the green. This made stablecoins lose out on their market dominance, as most bottom-performers in the past week were stablecoins.

Fear and Greed Index Continues to Report "Extreme Fear"

The cryptocurrency market’s sentiment has remained bearish and fearful despite the green week behind it. This sentiment is reflected in the Fear and Greed Index's "extreme fear" signal. The sentiment is primarily caused by the uncertainty behind platforms that filed for bankruptcy in recent days.

The Fear and Greed Index is currently sitting at 20, a slight downtick from the previous week’s 22. However, we may soon see the index moving towards the mid-levels, provided that the market continues pushing up.

Fear & Greed Index | Source: Alternative

Bitcoin (BTC/USDT) Analysis on KuCoin Chart

The leading cryptocurrency managed to push above the $20,000 mark two weeks ago, with its move continuing in the past week. Data from KuCoin and TradingView showed BTC/USD moving past $22,000 but getting stopped just below the $22,900 Fibonacci retracement resistance level.

When retreating from its previous high, Bitcoin has found support in the daily 21-moving average, which currently sits at just below $20,500. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap is now trying to push past its immediate resistance level, and get itself above the $23,000 line.

The price of Bitcoin has moved into the middle RSI (relative strength index) zone as it crossed 54 points. This may indicate that, if we don’t see a strong push towards the upside soon, we may see a leg down towards its support levels.

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

When it comes to the mid-term Bitcoin outlook, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap is now in the lower part of the Fibonacci retracement, with its resistance levels to the upside being $22,900, $26,150, and then $28,780.

When talking about the downside, Bitcoin may find support at the $18,800, or $17,650 levels.

Did you know that KuCoin offers premium TradingView charts to all its clients? With this, you can step up your Bitcoin technical analysis and easily identify various crypto chart patterns.