Weekly Crypto Analysis: BTC Slightly Bullish; Centralized Platforms and Twitter in Highlights
The cryptocurrency market has recovered slightly from the same time the previous week, but has in no way shifted its sentiment. While Bitcoin has pushed above the $20,000 mark, and looks like it’s somewhat safe above it, it encounters heavy resistance to the upside at just under $23,000. The sector is still shaky in terms of negative sentiment coming from the retail sector and overleveraged institutions collapsing, but its strong fundamentals seem to be pushing the positive side of the story through as well.
With that said, the global market capitalization has increased to $916 billion, up from $865 billion from the past week. As we reported in our previous weekly analysis, Bitcoin did manage to push above $20k with altcoins following suit, but the battle for the sentiment shift is far from over yet.
The overall market is still largely pushing towards stablecoins, with USDT and USDC leading the game. At the same time, numerous analysts are calling for the crypto bottom, while traditional finance analysts are calling for a shaky week due to inflation.
Considering the overall bearish undertone in the crypto market, check out 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 neutral the day, with its weekly price managing to increase by 6.78%, currently sitting at just above $20,500. When it comes to market dominance, Bitcoin has gained from 42.20% to 42.90% this week. This is mostly due to the slightly decreased dominance of stablecoins which came as a result of Bitcoin’s price increase. On Monday, the leading cryptocurrency pair, BTC/USD, is trading at $20,535.72, while Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has increased its price to $1,145.41, up 7.06% in the past seven days.
Convex Finance (CVX) has rocketed in the past week, recording gains of 36.66%, followed by Quant’s (QNT) 35.89% and Aave’s (AAVE) 32.48% gains.
Cryptocurrency Market Heatmap | Source: Coin360
Last week's worst performers ended up being TerraClassicUSD (USTC), Synthetix (SNX), and Waves (WAVES). USTC is down 23.31% to $0.05, and SNX fell more than 17.12% to $2.38. Lastly, WAVES is down 4.60% in the past seven days.
The cryptocurrency market remains risk-off due to a series of events we will explore below.
Top Altcoin Gainers and Losers
Top Altcoin Gainers:
⧫ Convex Finance (CVX) ➠ 36.66%
⧫ Quant (QNT) ➠ 35.89%
⧫ Aave (AAVE) ➠ 32.48%
Top Altcoin Losers:
⧫ TerraClassicUSD (USTC) ➠ 23.31%
⧫ Synthetix (SNX) ➠ 17.12%
⧫ Waves (WAVES) ➠ 4.60%
News Highlights
Here are some of the events that made the previous week's crypto news section stand out:
Twitter Reportedly Looking to File a Lawsuit Against Elon Musk
Social media platform Twitter is reportedly looking to file a lawsuit against Telsa CEO Elon Musk after he announced that he intends to step away from the $44 billion Twitter acquisition deal.
The dispute mainly boils down to Musk requiring Twitter to present exact data on the number and percentage of bot accounts on the network, while the social media company claims that they have already done that to the best of their abilities, and claims that stepping away from the deal will have to cost the Tesla CEO upwards of $1 billion.
Voyager Digital Files for Bankruptcy, Celsius Remains Above Water
Voyager Digital started the month of July by pausing withdrawals amid its liquidity issues as a result of Three Arrows Capital (3AC) defaulting on a $650 million loan. Despite Alameda Research supplying the firm with half a billion dollars in June, Voyager couldn’t bear the brunt of the bear market attack and filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday.
Many investors went public, stating that they have lost their life savings which they had locked with Voyager Digital.
In the meantime, Celsius, a centralized staking platform that is also dealing with massive insolvency issues, has changed its legal team in order to prepare itself for restructuring. On top of that, the company has repaid $20 million worth of debt on Aave, showing that the company is fighting to stay afloat. However, Celsius still owes approximately $215 million to different lenders.
Terra Projects Migrate to Polygon
With the Terra blockchain getting destroyed by the now-infamous crash, projects formerly running on it had to think of migrating to other protocols in order to keep themselves alive and running. As a result of that, around 50 different crypto projects formerly based on the Terra ecosystem have found a “new home” by migrating over to Polygon, an Ethereum-based layer 2 network.
Polygon Studios CEO Ryan Wyatt has expressed his delight on Twitter, stating that he is excited that his network onboarded so many projects to the ecosystem. He hinted that Polygon’s multimillion-dollar Terra Developer Fund has proven to be effective in attracting the talent that ended up stuck in limbo during Terra’s collapse in May.
Crypto Calendar: Events to Watch This Week
➺ 13/07/2022 - Quarterly Public Meeting (FIL)
➺ 15/07/2022 - China Accounts Removal (STEPN)
➺ 15/07/2022 - Avalanche House Brooklyn (ANKR, AVAX, CRYPTO, VSP)
USDT and USDC Maintaining Market Dominance
Despite Tether's reduction in circulating supply, two top Stablecoins by market capitalization, USDT, and USDC, saw their dominance reach and maintain a very high level, with the two cryptocurrencies holding the 3rd and 4th place in the market capitalization rankings, respectively.
During the bearish crypto sessions, investors tend to convert their BTC and altcoin holdings into stablecoins in order to protect their funds from downwards-trending market conditions. As a result, stablecoin dominance has never been stronger, with almost every single stablecoin gaining dominance and increasing in market cap in recent weeks.
Fear and Greed Index Continues to Report "Extreme Fear"
The cryptocurrency market has remained bearish and fearful, which is certainly reflected in the Fear and Greed Index's "extreme fear" signal. While it is true that the whales continued to increase their positions, the retail sector remained heavily bearish.
The Fear and Greed Index is currently sitting at 22, a slight uptick from the previous week’s 14. The index is slowly moving away from extreme fear and towards the mid-levels.
Fear & Greed Index | Source: Alternative
Bitcoin (BTC/USDT) Analysis on KuCoin Chart
The leading cryptocurrency has managed to push above the $20,000 mark in the past week, with its price reaching as high as $22,500 on Friday. Data from KuCoin and TradingView showed BTC/USDT giving up some of its gains from earlier in the week while still looking to post its best weekly gains since March.
When retreating from its previous high, Bitcoin has found support in the daily 21-moving average, which currently sits around $20,500. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap is now trying to stay above it, and if it succeeds, it might propel its price towards the first Fibonacci retracement level of $22,900.
The price of Bitcoin has come out of the oversold zone as the RSI (relative strength index) crossed 40 points from the lower side on the daily chart.
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.
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