Weekly Crypto Analysis: ZCash and THORChain Outperform, Eyes on the US Fed Funds Rate

2022/02/14 12:05:41

Today's global cryptocurrency market capitalization is $1.72 trillion, having risen from $1.67 trillion the previous Monday. During the previous week, the crypto market cap reached a high of $1.85 trillion. Over the past 24 hours, the total crypto market volume has increased by 16.08% to $62.28 billion.

The total volume in DeFi is currently $9.61 billion, accounting for 15.43% of the total 24-hour volume in the crypto market. The total volume of all stable coins is now $52.19 billion, accounting for 83.79% of the total 24-hour volume of the crypto market.

Let's take a quick look at the latest crypto market news and the technical outlook for ZCash and Rune as these rocketed over 40% during the previous week.

Crypto Market Overview

Bitcoin is consolidating in a wide trading range of $42,500 to $37,500 and managed to gain just 1.39% during the last week. Likewise, Ethereum is also tossing in profit and losses, gaining around 1.47% as the market is cautious amid geopolitical tensions.

Zcash (ZEC), THORChain (RUNE), Waves (WAVES), and Terra (LUNA), on the other hand, remained the top performers from the previous week. ZEC increased by more than 46% to trade at $153, while Rune increased by 43% in the last seven days to $6.57.

Cryptocurrency Market Heatmap | Source: Coin360

Fantom (FTM) lost ground in the previous week, falling roughly 17%. Solana (SOL) is currently trading at $80.49, representing a 5.75% decrease from the previous week. Similarly, other altcoins such as MINA, CELO, AMP, and ALGO have lost more than 5% in the previous 7 days.

A bearish correction is usually a good time to buy for investors who have already missed the bus.

Top Altcoin Gainers and Losers

Top Altcoin Gainers:

➢ Zcash (ZEC) ➠ 46.18%

➢ THORChain (RUNE) ➠ 43.64%

➢ Waves (WAVES) ➠ 37.96%

➢ Terra (LUNA) ➠ 23.92%

Top Altcoin Losers:

➢ Anchor Protocol (ANC) ➠ 22.86%

➢ Fantom (FTM) ➠ 17.90%

➢ SXP (SXP) ➠ 18.48%

➢ Celo (CELO) ➠ 6.48%

News Highlights

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

Investors Predict Fed to Hike Rates This Week

The US Federal Reserve is expected to raise its target fed funds rate on Wednesday for the first time since the pandemic outbreak. At the previous policy meeting, Fed Chair Jerome Powell clarified that a rapidly recovering US economy no longer requires such an accommodative monetary policy.

The central bank would begin raising interest rates at its March 15-16 meeting to contain surging inflation. Powell stated that he is inclined to support a 25 basis point increase but that if inflation does not subside as expected, the Fed may act more aggressively. However, it did not provide any additional information about how quickly the Fed would do so.

Powell also stated that the outbreak of war in Ukraine had created significant uncertainty for monetary policy. As the Russia-Ukraine conflict rages on in Europe, analysts and economists are riveted on this pivotal event. If the Federal Reserve decides to raise interest rates by a quarter %age point from zero, investors wonder how stock markets, cryptocurrency prices, and investments such as precious metals will react.

Steve Wozniak (Apple Co-founder) Expects Bitcoin to Hit $100K

In an interview published last week on the Wild Ride with Steve-O podcast, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak discussed cryptocurrency and began by telling about his bitcoin investment experience.

"I bought a bunch of bitcoin at the start to say how do you play with this new thing? How do you buy something online? How do you buy things in other countries, and how would you pay for a donut? How do you locate an ATM that accepts bitcoin? "

I want to try everything and learn everything," the Apple co-founder explained. He further said, "And then bitcoin went way up. So I got scared and sold all my bitcoin except one bitcoin."

Wozniak stated that his goal is to "have enough to experiment with, but not make money on." However, "it's gone way up and made money twice."

Lastly, the Apple co-founder then predicted bitcoin's price:

"Just recently, I think bitcoin is going to go to $100,000."

That kind of statement typically drives a bullish sentiment in the market, underpinning not just Bitcoin but the other altcoins.

US Treasury Launching Cryptocurrency Awareness Program

In an interview with Nellie Liang, the Treasury undersecretary for domestic finance, she said that the US Treasury Department is trying to make people more aware of cryptocurrency investing. The Treasury Department's Financial Literacy Education Commission will develop educational materials and conduct outreach on digital assets.

The Education Unit of the Treasury is made up of 20 different government agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Federal Reserve, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

The government's trading program aims to educate people about crypto assets, how they work, and how they differ from other payment methods. Official government training programs will be considered positive for cryptocurrencies and will help to keep them afloat.

AMC Theatres Now Accepts Dogecoin and Shiba Inu

Cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly popular around the world, and their acceptance is growing. AMC Theatres now accepts payments in the cryptocurrencies Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB).

AMC Entertainment (NYSE: AMC), formerly known as AMC Theatres, is the world's largest movie exhibition company, with locations in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Globally, the company owns or operates approximately 950 theaters and 10,500 screens.

AMC Theatres CEO Adam Aron announced on Thursday that amctheatres.com now accepts DOGE and SHIB for online payments. The CEO also singled out Bitpay, which handles cryptocurrency payments for his company.

Payment Gateway Stripe to Bring Back Crypto Support

Stripe, the payment giant, has re-entered the crypto space after four years by launching a line of solutions to support crypto businesses. Stripe is a payment infrastructure company with 14 global offices headquartered in San Francisco and Dublin. According to its website, Stripe is used by millions of businesses in over 120 countries to start, run, and scale their operations, including Amazon, Google, Shopify, Microsoft, Spotify, Uber, and Nasdaq.

Stripe co-founder John Collison announced on Twitter that his company now supports crypto businesses such as exchanges, wallets, on-ramps, and non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces.

News and events of this kind typically drive an uptrend in the crypto market. Now let's have a look at the technical side of the market.

THORChain (RUNE) Analysis

THORChain is in a bullish mode, having bounced off from the triple bottom support level of $3.40. The RUNE/USDT is now trading at $7, having completed a 23.6% Fibonacci retracement at the $6.65 level. The formation of the weekly candles above the $6.65 level validates the bullish breakout, exposing the RUNE price towards the 38.2% Fibonacci resistance level of $10.40.

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

On the weekly timeframe, the RUNE/USDT has formed "three white soldiers," which indicates a strong bullish bias in the market. Lastly, the leading technical indicators such as MACD and RSI are in the buying zone. Rune bullish bias dominates over $6.65, and vice versa.

ZCash (ZEC) Analysis

The price of ZEC/USDT increased by more than 43% in the previous week, and the triple bottom pattern was a major technical reason for such a massive reversal. On the weekly chart, the ZCash has crossed above the 50-day EMA (exponential moving average) at $135 and is now aiming for a 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level of $170. The RSI and MACD are both in the buying zone, indicating a bullish trend.

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

The ZEC/USDT has formed a "bullish engulfing candle," indicating that the market has a strong bullish bias. Finally, the leading technical indicators, such as MACD and RSI, are in the positive territory. Over $136, the ZEC bullish bias dominates, and vice versa.

What is Zcash?

Zcash is an open-source cryptocurrency developed by Zerocoin Electric Coin Company that provides privacy and selective transaction transparency. Zcash payments are published to the public blockchain, but the sender, recipient and amount of the transaction remain secret[5]. The Zcash trademark, ZEC, is not an official ISO 4217. The minimum transferable value, 10-8 ZEC, has been dubbed "zotoshi", similar to "satoshi", a similar amount to Bitcoin. Like Bitcoin, Zcash has a fixed maximum total supply of 21 million units. The current average block creation time is 75 seconds (1.25 minutes). Announced on 20 January 2016.

The anonymity level of Zcash has been noted by many well-known companies and personalities. For example, WikiLeaks started accepting donations in Zcash, Edward Snowden, who was one of the developers, called the cryptocurrency the most interesting alternative to Bitcoin, and Europol officially expressed concern about the cryptocurrency's growing popularity.

Zcash is the first cryptocurrency based on a zero-disclosure cryptographic proof protocol. The logic of the protocol assumes that one of the interacting parties is able to verify the validity of a mathematical assertion without any other information from the other party. In fact, Zcash is the first truly anonymous cryptocurrency, as it is possible to verify that a transaction has taken place, but there is no way to know the amount, sender and recipient.

Like Bitcoin, there are several ways to mine Zcash. The two main methods of mining Zcash, as with most cryptocurrencies, are Zcash mining in a pool and solo mining.

Good luck, fellas. Stay tuned for exciting updates!

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