Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Major Altcoins – Weekly Market Update December 5, 2022

The cryptocurrency market added $50 billion to its market cap during the last seven days and now stands at $869 billion. The top 10 coins were mostly in green for the same period with Polygon (MATIC) and ether (ETH) being the best performers with 10.8 and 8.4 percent of gains respectively. Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading at $17,300 while Ethereum (ETH) is at 1,295.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin closed the trading week of November 21-27 at $16,450 and with a one percent increase after jumping 5.5 percent up from its seven-day low. The long-term diagonal support on the bigger timeframe provided the required stability keeping buyers’ hopes alive.

On Monday, November 28 the BTC/USDT pair fell down to $16,200 but not before touching $16,000 in the early part of the session. This was the fifth straight red candle on the daily chart.

The biggest cryptocurrency compensated for the losses on the very next day – November 29 when it climbed to $16,450. A new local range was formed in the $17,500 – $15,500 area.

BTC rallied to $17,200 during the mid-week session on Wednesday thanks to the more dovish comments from the US Federal Reserve (FED) chairman Jay Powell. Bulls pushed the price 4.3 percent up to close above the 21-day EMA for the first time since November 7.

The coin ended the month of November 16.5 percent lower compared to the previous 30-day period.

On Thursday the price experienced a slight correction to $17,000, but bulls successfully kept it floating above that mark and also above the short-term EMA. The RSI continued to show a bullish divergence with the price direction on both the daily and weekly timeframe charts while volumes were relatively low.

The Friday session was when sellers tried to take over control again. BTC briefly touched $16,820 but recovered in the later part of the session to close at $17,000.

The weekend of December 3-4 started with another attempt to break the $17,000 mark. The level is turning into a short-term support and a major point of interest for traders. BTC lost 1.2 percent for the day.

Then on Sunday, it fully erased the losses from the last session by forming the exact same candle but in the opposite direction.

What we are seeing midday on Monday is a continuation of the uptrend above the resistance.

ETH/USD

The Ethereum Project token ETH closed the week of November 21-27 with a 4.8 percent increase and right at the formed horizontal support at $1,200. The coin managed to avoid falling below the important $1,000-$1,100 support area and printed its first green week since the end of October.

On Monday, November 28 the ether dropped to $1,167 but found stability at the former short-term diagonal resistance on the daily chart.

The move was followed by a solid green session on Tuesday during which the biggest and most popular altcoin moved 4 percent up to $1,219 fully erasing the losses from the last 5 trading days.

The uptrend continued on Wednesday and as mentioned above the more dovish comments from the FED helped the major digital assets perform better. ETH was no exception adding 6 more percent to its valuation.

It climbed above the 21-day EMA and closed the day at $1,294, moving above the important $1,270 level (former support turned into resistance) for the first time since November 10.

A proper consolidation here would open the door for further rally up towards the $1,400-$1,420 zone.

The ETH/USDT pair ended the month of November with а 17 percent loss.

On Thursday, December 1, bulls started the new week with a price pullback to $1,270 in a potential consolidation after the breakout on the daily chart.

The last day of the workweek came with a push to $1,300 which quickly turned into a short-term resistance.

The trading session on Saturday was not a good one for buyers as ETH lost 4.2 percent and hit $1,240 before partially recovering during the Sunday trading.

Looking at the weekly chart the price ended its second consecutive week in green after forming a bottom. Not only that but it is currently hovering above the resistance at the beginning of the new seven-day period.

Leading Majors

• Polygon (MATIC)

Polygon continues to rank at #10 on the biggest cryptocurrency list, slightly in front of Polkadot.

The popular sidechain solution is now trading above the major $0.75-$0.80 horizontal support area and last week managed to also surpass the 21-period EMA on the weekly chart thanks to the 10 percent jump for the period.

Next for buyers will be to stabilize in the current zone and initiate a run toward the next major resistance around the psychological level of $1.

The trade setup is similar to the 1D timeframe although we can expect volatility close to the $0.94 mark where MATIC faced some resistance a few times already during the last 4 months.

The low trading volumes mean trades should be extremely cautious and with tight stop losses as the momentum might not be favorable for bigger long exposure.

Potential support at $0.85.

Altcoin of the week

Our Altcoin of the week is Fantom (FTM). This popular Layer 1 blockchain solution was created by Andre Cronje – one of the leading DeFi developers from the last bull run. The coin went into oblivion during the 2022 market correction but recently started moving up again.

The main drivers behind the surge in the price of the FTM/USDT pair are the return of Andre as project architect and his statement that Fantom Foundation’s treasury is stable and large enough to support its dev efforts during the bear market.

Additionally, there is an ongoing proposal at Fantom to initiate the so-called dApp Gas Monetization Program that will introduce a new, lower-paced, token burn mechanism that will help redirect some of the funds towards dApps creation and developer rewards.

The price of FTM reacted positively to this news and rallied 32 percent to hit $0.25, right below the 21-period EMA on the weekly timeframe chart.

The coin is currently ranked at #63 on CoinGecko with a total market cap of approximately $630 million.