Bitcoin, Ether, Major Altcoins – Weekly Market Update August 29, 2022

The cryptocurrency market erased $52 billion from its market cap during the last seven days and now stands at $953 billion. The top 10 coins were all in red for the same time period with Solana (SOL) and Dogecoin (DOGE) being the worst performers with 16.3 and 11.4 percent of losses respectively. Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading at $19,820 while ether (ETH) is at 1,449.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin closed the trading day on Sunday, August 21 at $21,520 as the old horizontal resistance around $22,000, where the price topped in late June and early July, was once again a major obstacle in front of bulls. The coin closed the previous seven-day period with an 11.4 percent loss.

The weekly chart presented us with a clear bear flag pattern below the 200-period EMA.

What we could see next is a re-test of the sub-$19,000 area.

On Monday, August 22 the BTC/USDT pair fell to $20,900 in the morning but managed to recover in the evening part of the session eventually closing at $21,400 with a small loss.

We saw the exact same price action on Tuesday, but this time bitcoin turned green at the candle close.

The mid-week session on Wednesday came again with high volatility. BTC was trading in the $21,100 – $21,900 range before stopping at $21,360.

The price action could be another bear flag in the making, but we cannot rule out the possibility of a short-term pump to fill the created fair value gap before the continuation of the downtrend.

On Thursday, August 25 we saw a stable increase of the BTC/USDT pair to the $21,800 mark, but the market lacked any real trading activity waiting for the Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell’s annual Jackson Hole speech on monetary activity.

The more hawkish comments from Powell on Friday resulted in s serious correction. BTC lost 6 percent and almost broke below the $20,000 mark, closing at $20,200.

The weekend of August 27-28 started with a re-test of the mentioned psychological level on Saturday as bears were in full control of the market.

Then on Sunday, it hit $19,500 for the first time since mid-July losing another 2 percent.

The BTC/USDT pair is trading slightly higher – at $19.800 midday on Monday.

ETH/USDT

The Ethereum Project token ETH continued to struggle with surpassing the 21-period EMA on the weekly timeframe chart. The $1,850-$1,920 zone was also where the February 2021 resistance and May 2021 support were situated.

On Sunday, August 21, the ether closed in green with a 3 percent increase but lost 16.6 percent for the week.

The new week started with an early drop to $1,530 in the morning on Monday, August 22. Bulls, however, were quick to react and erased all losses to allow the coin to close in green.

The Tuesday session was no different and the ETH/USDT pair continued to move in the upward direction, absorbing all sell orders. It added another 2.8 percent for the day and hit $1,666.

The third day of the workweek was volatile, but still, neither bulls nor bears were able to take over control and change the pride direction in their favor. ETH closed almost flat.

On Thursday, we saw a good buying volume in the first part of the trading day as buyers were pushing the price up to the 21-day EMA, closing at $1,693.

However, the formed bear flag and the hawkish monetary stance by the FED resulted in a deep pullback on Friday. ETH dropped to $1,509, erasing 10.5 percent of its market cap in just one session.

The first day of the weekend came with a re-test of the July bottom – $1,450 and another red candle on the daily chart.

On Sunday, the ETH/USDT pair moved further down to $1,425 which resulted in a 4 percent decrease in its price.

As of the time of writing this market update, the ether is hovering around the $1,450 mark.

Leading Majors

Polygon (MATIC)

Polygon’s MATIC token was the least impacted by last week’s market correction. It erased “just” 5.2 percent of its valuation on a seven-day basis, avoiding a deeper pullback.

The coin is still trading close to one of its old support ranges on the weekly timeframe – the $0.75-$0.80 area, but unfortunately broke below the diagonal uptrend on the daily timeframe which was supporting the rally since June 18 after suffering a rejection near 200-day EMA 2 weeks back.

Currently, the price is hovering around the end of July support and we can still consider this a consolidation if the uptrend rally is to continue. Next resistance at $1.

In the meantime, the Total Value Locked (TVL) on Polygon decreased by 15 percent in the last seven days.

Altcoin of the week

Our Altcoin of the week and best performing digital asset on the CoinGecko Top 100 list is eCash (XEC). Previously known as Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHA) and later rebranded to eCash, this cryptocurrency protocol is looking to provide end users with innovative and secure wealth management services.

The XEC/USDT pair added 20 percent to its valuation during last week’s trading as a result of the announcement that the next step in the eCash roadmap will be taken on September 14 by launching the Avalanche Post-Consensus on the eCash Mainnet.

As per the project blog “post-consensus brings 51% attack prevention which increases the security of the network significantly”. And also “brings 1-block finality to eCash, which opens the door for exchanges to enable 1 confirmation deposits.”

During the last seven days, the coin was trading above the 21-period on the weekly timeframe but corrected its price by more than 27 percent to close below the horizontal resistance. Looking at the 1-day chart, the XEC/USDT pair is also struggling to surpass the mid-August high.

Potential support at $0.000036.

As of the time of writing, eCash is ranked at #52 on CoinGecko with a total market cap of $1 billion.