Crypto Weekly Roundup: Top Altcoins Continue to Fade Out Following Bitcoin and Ethereum

2021/08/31 10:11:22

The cryptocurrency market is back to consolidation after a month of the uptrend. The two biggest cryptos, Bitcoin and Ethereum, are holding grounds at their key support and resistance levels, as the sellers are gradually attempting to take over the market. Despite the strength coming from the bears at the current levels, the bulls are buying back the discounts every step of the way – indicating the legitimacy of the current uptrend.

On the other hand, Altcoins are split up such that some are outperforming BTC and ETH while others are in correlation with them. For instance, Solana’s native token SOL has been pushing to the north even though the entire crypto space is facing pressure from the bears since the past week.

Bitcoin and Ethereum

The last couple to three weeks has been sluggish for both Bitcoin and Ethereum as the markets are finding resistance every inch they head higher. However, the fact that the momentum of the bulls on the way up remains stagnant is a clear indication of the buyers not willing to throw in the towel as of yet.

On the price front, Bitcoin has taken resistance at $40,700, and Ethereum has been holding below $3,340 for over a week now. On the bigger picture, the market is not essentially in a range, as the buyers are going long at higher prices, leaving a higher low with equal highs.

Recently, on August 28, 2021, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) took it to Twitter and claimed that Bitcoin and other crypto-assets are issued privately with significant risks, and giving it the worth of a national currency is highly not recommended. But the crypto community completely seems to have disagreed with the statements of the IMF. Crypto supporters find it ironic as a privately issued national currency is being compared with a public, open-source protocol.

The ETH transaction fee being burned with the new EIP-1559 is happening at an overwhelming rate. As of today, over $400 million worth of Ether has been burned by the network after its recent update. Currently, almost 200 ETH is being destroyed per hour, which before was handed out to miners as rewards. On August 27, the numbers reached new heights as a whopping $35.8 million in ETH was burnt down. The update strives to bring stability in the highly volatile transaction fees of ETH and get closer to moving from the current PoW consensus algorithm to Proof-of-Stake – taking an environmentally friendly approach to the system.

Takeaway

From the very beginning, the issues with Bitcoin have been popping in the media, putting the crypto in a bad light. But it remains to be opaque with the price action, as the price continues to inch higher regardless.

The king of altcoins, Ethereum, with one of the techs out there in the crypto market, is leading the prices to rise further to the upside. The initial stage of switching the network to PoS is going in full swing, and the price does not seem to have any bad impact on it thus far.

Altcoins

The altcoin market has always proved to be a winner in crypto bull runs. And history has repeated itself yet again. The market, of course, started off in Bitcoin's favor as the prices slashed through the resistance levels with compelling power but were eventually taken over by altcoins as the buyers shifted concentration to other projects.

As we speak of altcoins, Solana is the first project that involuntarily comes to one’s mind. The relatively new crypto SOL has been surging since its inception. It is currently receiving immense popularity, as it has evidently been the performer in this bull run.

Tezos, a proof-of-stake protocol that allows developers to efficiently build dApps and financial services using smart contracts, has been breaking through few tough resistance levels even though the majority of the coins are holding back. A major reason for its unstoppable uptrend can be due to the recent update 'Granada' that kicked at the beginning of August. This major update brings down the block period from one minute to half a minute and heavily reduces the gas fee to run smart contracts.

Takeaway

The historical trends speak out a lot of information. The altcoin market leading the Bitcoin market like the previous time is the evident proof for the prices to continue to rise higher in the long term if not in the near term, as many altcoins are due to reach their ATH.

Conclusion

The crypto market is no different from other financial markets. No doubt that they are relatively more volatile, but in terms of price action and movement trajectory, they are essentially the same.

The crypto market has left crypto enthusiasts with a perception that this market only rises – which is not entirely true. As mentioned above, it is no different from that of other asset classes, does go through retracements and downturns in spite of the extreme bullishness fundamentally. Hence, the current price action of the market slowing down must be perceived as the market adjusting around at areas of resistance instead of turning bearish on it.

Stay tuned and watch the KuCoin Blog for more interesting, educational, and informative crypto content. All the best!