Bitcoin, Ether, Major Altcoins – Weekly Market Update February 14, 2022

The total crypto market cap erased $85 billion from its value for the last seven days and now stands at $1.87 billion. The top 10 coins were mostly in red for the same time period with Solana (SOL) and Polkadot (DOT) being the worst performers with 19.2 and 16.2 percent of losses respectively while XRP (XRP) added 15.7 percent. Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading at $42,220 while ether (ETH) is at 2,870.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin closed the trading day on Sunday, February 6 at $42,400, well above the mid-term diagonal resistance and the 21-day exponential moving average (EMA). The mentioned downtrend line was unbreakable for 86 days since BTC peaked at $69,000 on November 10, 2021. Bulls were able to also surpass and consolidate above the horizontal S/R line around $40,500 (stable support with a proven success rate from back in September 2021 and January 2022).

The biggest cryptocurrency ended the previous seven-day period with an 11.8 percent of price increase with the next major resistance zone situated in the $45,800 – $46,600 range where the biggest trading activity is according to the Volume Profile (VPVR) indicator.

On Monday, February 7, the BTC/USDT pair continued to move in the upward direction reaching $44,500 during the intraday trading before closing the session at $43,980 with a 3.6 percent of a price increase.

BTC climbed up to $45,600 on Tuesday, hitting the lower boundary of the mentioned resistance zone on the daily/weekly timeframes. The momentum, however, was not strong enough, and bears pushed the price down to $44,100 at the daily candle close.

The 24-hour volumes were increasing as the RSI re-entered the overbought area.

The mid-week trading day on Wednesday was relatively calm with the price gravitating around the $44,000 mark. It eventually closed at $44,336. The price action was similar to the July 2021 rally.

On Thursday, February 10, the BTC/USDT pair dropped down to $43,514 after suffering rejection in the lower boundary of the mentioned resistance cluster.

The Friday session was no different and the leading cryptocurrency project fell further down to $42,400, erasing another 2.8 percent. The United States inflation data which came worse than expected, at 7.5 percent on a yearly basis, impacted heavily the crypto markets once again confirming its deepening correlation with traditional finance.

The weekend of February 12-13 came with a relatively calm trading day on Saturday, during which the coin managed to stabilize in the region above the 21-day EMA on the daily chart. We could see the formation of something similar to an inverted head and shoulders pattern.

On Sunday, BTC fell to $42,000 in its fourth consecutive day in red.

What we are seeing midday on Monday is low volatility as the price hovers around $42,200.

ETH/USD

The Ethereum project token ETH formed its fourth consecutive green candle on the daily chart on Sunday, February 6. It hit the September weekly bottom at $3,070 ending the week 17.4 percent higher. The coin successfully moved above the 21-day EMA thus confirming the short-term reversal to the upside.

The rally continued on Monday as the ether climbed further to $3,145 touching the mid-term downtrend line for the first time since early January. The move resulted in a 2.5 percent increase for the day.

The Tuesday session was when ETH bulls pushed the price above the diagonal resistance briefly hitting $3,233 before retracing down to $3,111.

On Wednesday, February 9, the ETH/USDT pair jumped back up from the mentioned weekly low and rose to $3,230 (or 3.4 percent higher), close to the next potential resistance zone is in the $3,250-$3,350 range. 3.8  

The 24-hour volumes were still slightly below the average values, yet the RSI recovered in a spectacular manner and entered the overbought area.

The Thursday session, however, was all bears. ETH dropped down to $3,080, or 5 percent lower, on the disappointing US inflation data.

The selloff continued on Friday, February 11 when another 5 percent were removed from the token’s valuation. It once again moved below the diagonal downtrend line and hit the 21-day EMA on the daily timeframe.

The weekend trading brought more pain for the Ethereum bulls as their preferred altcoin hit $2,874 and ended the week in red.

The ether is trading flat early on Monday.

Leading Majors

• XRP (XRP)

The Ripple company token XRP has been on the rise since touching a 6-month low in late January. The XRP/USDT pair is 32 percent up since it jumped back up from the $0.60 support on February 3.

It added 17.6 percent to its valuation for the last seven-day period, peaking at $0.91 on February 9 (above the 21-period EMA on the weekly timeframe) before partially retracing the rally down to $0.79 as of the time of writing.

The former support around $0.80 will surely act as a resistance on both the daily and weekly charts while the $0.55-$0.60 zone is expected to provide the required stability if the selling pressure increases.

XRP is currently ranked at #6 with a market cap of $37.5, in front of Cardano’s ADA, but still far behind Binance Coin and its $66 billion in valuation.

Altcoin of the Week

Our altcoin of the week is LEO Token (LEO). Also known as Unus Sed Leo, LEO is the native coin of the iFinex group, the parent company of the Bitfinex exchange.

The coin added 15 percent to its valuation during the last week making it a total of 62 percent on a 14-day basis. LEO hit a new all-time after rallying all the way up to $8.16 on February 8 when the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it has seized over $3.6 billion worth of Bitcoin (94,000 BTC) that were stolen from the exchange in a hack back in 2016.

The LEO/USD pair skyrocketed right after the news mainly as a result of Bitfinex’s statement that came later in the day confirming their intention to use an amount equal to 80% of the recovered net funds to repurchase and burn outstanding UNUS SED LEO tokens within 18 months as per the LEO token whitepaper.

The coin climbed up to #28 on CoinGecko’s Top 100 list with a market cap of approximately $5.47 billion. As of the time of writing it is trading 26 percent below its ATH – at $5.83.