Bitcoin and Ether Market Update December 24, 2020

Total crypto market cap erased $50.2 billion from its value for the period since Monday morning and now stands at $619.7 billion. The top ten coins were all in red for the last 24 hours with XRP  and ChainLink (LINK) being the worst performers with 30 and 16.7 percent of losses respectively. At the time of writing bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $23,200 on the Bitstamp daily chart, ether (ETH) fell to $581. Ripple’s XRP continues its freefall and is now trading at $0.262.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin closed the trading day on Sunday, December 20 at $23,450. It was its first session in red since December 11 when it started rallying up from the $18,100 weekly support. The leading cryptocurrency added 22.5 percent for the seven-day period while temporarily moving above $24,000.

On Monday, the BTC/USD pair continued falling and reached a daily low of $21,872 before closing at $22,731 in the evening. The move corresponded to a 3 percent decrease in price.

The trading day on Tuesday, December 22 found buyers jumping off the mentioned level and forming a big green candle to $23,850. The 5 percent increase helped the biggest cryptocurrency avoid the short-to-mid-term downtrend reversal, at least temporarily.

The mid-week session on Wednesday, however, brought another rejection near the $24,000 level, which triggered another selloff. Bitcoin dropped down to $23,230 and bears were able to push it all the way down to $22,600 during intraday.

The Ripple confrontation with the US SEC (Security and exchange commission) started to have an impact not only on the altcoins but also on the market leader.

In the early hours of trading on Thursday, December 24, BTC is trading even lower, at $22,900.

The 24-hour trading volumes remained stable in the $38-$40 billion range in the first three days of the week, then started to pick up the pace and are currently at $45 billion as of the time of writing.

ETH/USD

The Ethereum Project token ETH closed the trading day on Sunday, December 20 at $637 after peaking at the monthly resistance situated near $670 on the previous day.

Bulls found stability at the $620 horizontal support and closed the seven-day period with an 8.1 percent increase.

The ETH/USD pair started the new trading week on Monday with a sharp drop to $607. The coin erased 4.7 percent from its value and broke below the mentioned weekly support.

It formed the exact same candle, but in the opposite direction on Tuesday, December 22, and successfully regained back its positions above $630.

The third day of the workweek came with a serious correction as the uptrend continuation could not be secured.

The ether fell all the way down to $584 and was seen as low as $550 at some point during the day. The move resulted in an 8.3 percent decrease.

The 24-hour trading volumes increased from $12 to $15 billion on Monday and Tuesday then continued to hover in the $13-$14 billion range on Wednesday before moving up to $17 billion on Thursday morning.