Weekly Crypto Analysis: BTC Remains Under $20K; ETH Merge Prep in Highlights

2022/09/05 13:55:09

The past week has brought the crypto market some stabilization, with a couple of altcoins managing to break out and gain over 10%, following Ethereum. The overall cryptocurrency market volume in the past 24 hours came up to $50.68 billion - close to $15 billion less than the previous week. The overall crypto market cap fell below the $1 trillion mark, now totaling $975.25 billion. This ended up being an increase of about $23 billion compared to the previous week.

Let's delve deeper and take a quick look at the latest crypto market news and BTC's technical outlook.

Crypto Market Overview

Bitcoin's drop below the $20,000 mark provided a quick shock to the market, causing more people to believe that another leg down is up ahead. BTC’s dominance is solidifying near the 40% mark, now standing at 37.54%. Numerous cryptocurrencies managed to outperform Bitcoin in the past week, with several recording double-digit gains. The most valuable cryptocurrency pair, BTC/USDT, is currently trading at $19,735.97, while Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has fallen to 1,573.85, up 10.23% in the last week.

The top performers from the previous week were Cosmos (ATOM), Lido DAO (LDO), and Ravencoin (RVN). ATOM has increased by 19.61%, while LDO gained 17.25% in the past seven days. Finally, RVN gained 14.55%.

Cryptocurrency Market Heatmap | Source: Coin360

On the other hand, Helium (HNT), Huobi Token (HT), and eCash (XEC) were the worst performers of the week. HNT is down 35.54% to $3.93; HT is down 8.43% in the last seven days; XEC is down 7.89%.

Top Altcoin Gainers and Losers

Top Altcoin Gainers:

Cosmos (ATOM) ➠ 19.61%
Lido DAO (LDO) ➠ 17.25%
Ravencoin (RVN) ➠ 14.55%

Top Altcoin Losers:

Helium (HNT) ➠ 35.54%
Huobi Token (HT) ➠ 8.43%
eCash (XEC) ➠ 7.89%

News Highlights

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

Ethereum Merge Coming Up, People Hoping for the Best

Ethereum merge date is slowly coming up, with many talking about the potential Ethereum PoW fork. A faction of Ether (ETH) miners will seemingly be creating a PoW fork of the network so that they can still keep mining.

While some support the decision, the vast majority call this event an “ETH PoW airdrop,” meaning they intend to cash out as soon as they receive the tokens.

Both those that want to hold or get the ETH PoW will need to hold ETH at exchanges that support the forks or decentralized wallets. That way, they will be absolutely certain they will be getting the forked coins. Of course, those that want to sell it as soon as possible will be better off holding their Ether on exchanges for quicker access to funds.

Cardano (ADA) Inching Closer to its Vasil Hard Fork

Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK), the blockchain company in charge of development for the Cardano network, stated that the Vasil hard fork is “ever closer.” IOHK shared its latest Vasil hard fork status, and posted updates on its three critical mass indicators, which determine the date of the upgrade.

The company indicated that they are looking for 75% of mainnet blocks produced by nodes running the 1.35.3 version, around 25 exchanges upgraded, as well as the top ten key mainnet decentralized applications (DApps) also upgrading to the new version.

When it comes to the current upgrade status, we are looking at around 50% of the transition finalized, with 50% to go until the Vasil hard fork goes live.

Helium Sinks 35% Following Proposed Move to Solana

Helium is under a lot of pressure from the public, as the core developers of the crypto-powered wireless network want to move from its own blockchain to the Solana ecosystem. However, the news is not very well accepted by its supporters, at least if we judge by the price of its HNT token.

Helium’s native HNT cryptocurrency has instantly fallen about 15% since the Solana migration governance proposal was announced on Sep 30, dropping to a price of $4.75 per token. The price then tanked even further, currently sitting at $3.93 per token.

Bank of Russia Legalizing Crypto?

The Bank of Russia, the country’s central bank, has allegedly admitted that cross-border crypto payments are certainly the future, especially in the current geopolitical conditions.

The Russian central bank has seemingly been rethinking the approach to regulating cryptocurrencies and agreed with the finance ministry of Russia to legalize crypto for cross-border payments, according to the local news agency TASS report.

While outlining the importance of enabling local crypto services in Russia, they didn’t specify a date of legitimization of the cross-border payments.

The Fear & Greed Index at 23, Market Sentiment Stabilizing

The fear and greed index has stabilized near the previous week’s levels after a huge drop from two weeks ago, when the number that represents crypto sentiment dropped from 45 to 24. The indicator now indicates “extreme fear” with a mark of 23, caused by the sudden drop of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Fear & Greed Index | Source: Alternative

Crypto Calendar: Events to Watch This Week

➺ 07/09/2022 - AXIE - AxieCon Barcelona

➺ 08/-9/2022 - KAVA - Kava 11 Launch

➺ 11/09/2022 - THETA - Metaweek

Bitcoin (BTC/USDT) Analysis on KuCoin Chart

Bitcoin (as well as the rest of the cryptocurrency market) has taken the past 7 days to stabilize from the sudden drop from two weeks ago. While some cryptocurrencies (such as Ethereum) managed to book double-digit gains, Bitcoin was quite a bit more conservative. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap is now trying to remain near the $20k mark, as well as attempt a push above it. With the hard week-by-week reduction in volume, this is very much a news-driven market, rather than one driven by technicals.

Even though Bitcoin remained in pretty much the same spot compared to the previous week, analysts are conflicted as to where the largest cryptocurrency by market cap will head in the future. While some are calling for a $30k push due to a double bottom pattern, some are calling for the price of $10k as Bitcoin whales have started moving and taking out some BTC from their wallet. Bitcoin’s price direction will most likely be decided by equity markets (due to the correlation between the two), as well as regulatory updates.

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

When it comes to support and resistance levels, Bitcoin is likely to encounter resistance to the upside at an area between $20,750 and $21,620. On the other side, analysts state that traders should watch out for $19,400, as this is the only level separating Bitcoin from the $17,550 level.

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