Bitcoin, Ether, Major Altcoins – Weekly Market Update February 28, 2022
The total crypto market cap added $13 billion to its value for the last seven days and now stands at $1.72 billion. The top 10 coins were mostly in red for the same time period with XRP (XRP) and Cardano (ADA) being the worst performers with 6.7 and 5.5 percent of losses, respectively. On the other hand, Terra (LUNA) increased by 50 percent. Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading at $38,550 while ether (ETH) is at 2,660.
BTC/USD
Bitcoin closed the trading day on Sunday, February 20 at $38,380 losing 4.4 percent of its value for the session making it 8.6 percent for the last seven days. Bulls were rejected at the 21-period EMA on the Weekly timeframe, right below the major resistance in the $45,600 – $46,600 area.
On Monday, the BTC/USDT pair continued to fall, pushed down by the increasing selling pressure and rising 24-hour volumes. The combination of falling prices and increased volumes usually is a sign that a trend continuation can be expected.
Buyers showed up on Tuesday as BTC drew a similar candle but in the opposite direction, erasing all losses.
The mid-week trading on Wednesday came with a reversal attempt in the early hours of the morning as the leading cryptocurrency briefly hit $39,260 before fully retracing and eventually moving on a red territory by the daily candle close. It stopped at $37,300.
On Thursday, bitcoin reacted to the Russian invasion of Ukraine dropping to $34,300 in the morning. The coin re-visited the January low but bulls were quick to react as the buy orders were triggered. BTC regained positions and closed in green at $38,330.
On the weekly chart, we could clearly see an RSI indicator entering oversold territory while volumes were decreasing below the average for the last 14 periods.
Buyers continued to push the price up on Friday as the overall crypto market was significantly outperforming the traditional markets. Bitcoin, in particular, added 2.5 percent to its valuation, to close the day at $39,250.
The first day of the weekend came with a re-test of the 21-day EMA and the zone right below the resistance cluster. BTC closed flat.
Then on Sunday, it started moving in the downward direction, losing 3.7 percent to end the week at $37,700.
The BTC/USDT pair is currently trading at $38,500.
ETH/USD
The Ethereum project token ETH was as well rejected near the 21-period EMA on the weekly timeframe losing 8.9 percent of its value on a weekly basis to hit the lower boundary of the long-term diagonal downtrend at $2,610.
On Monday, February 21 the ether attempted a reversal to the upside, but bulls faced a wall at $2,740. The rejection resulted in a sixth consecutive red candle on the daily chart.
The Tuesday session was slightly different and buyers were able to partially regain positions. The ETH/USDT pair climbed up to $2,636 and cemented its presence above the mentioned resistance.
The so-called reversal continued on the third day of the workweek when the price touched again the zone near $2,750. The bull traders were unable to surpass it and fell victims to the sell wall around it which caused the price to decrease down to $2,570.
On Thursday, February 24, the price of ETH was extremely volatile, moving up and down the $2,300 – $2,750 area before closing at $2,600 with a small increase. The abnormal trading was caused by the all-out invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. Risk assets were in freefall as investors were fleeing to safe havens like gold and silver while natural gas and oil saw record jumps.
The Friday session was a good one for the crypto market in general. The leading altcoin, in particular, jumped up to $2,760, adding 6 percent for the day.
The weekend of February 26-27 started with a quick break above the 21-day EMA on Saturday. The move was retraced later in the day as the resistance zone was too well defended for the low-volume attack.
Then on Sunday, the ETH/USDT pair faced rejection at the mentioned levels, which resulted in a drop to $2,620. Surprisingly, bulls were able to defend the long-term uptrend corridor.
What we are seeing midday on Monday is a short green candle up to $2,650.
Leading Majors
- Terra (LUNA)
The Terra ecosystem was under heavy fire during the last few weeks mainly due to some speculations the UST stablecoin would be eventually losing its peg to the dollar as a result of the problems its main savings protocol Anchor was having. As our readers probably know, the total deposits on Anchor significantly outpace the total borrowed funds, which puts significant pressure on the yield curve.
The recently held private sale by the Luna Foundation Guard to raise $1B, however, helped the ecosystem stabilize. The main idea is to form a UST reserve denominated in Bitcoin to support all protocols across Terra and ensure the needed liquidity is in place.
The LUNA/USDT pair rallied 46 percent last week and broke above both the 21-period EMA on the weekly timeframe, and the diagonal downtrend line.
The next potential resistance can be expected in the $75-$80 zone.
Altcoin of the Week
Our Altcoin of the week is Waves (WAVES). Described as a community‑based stack of decentralized open‑source technologies to build scalable, user‑friendly apps, WAVES was one of the best performing coins in the Top 100, behind Terra (LUNA) and Anchor Protocol (ANC). It found stability in the zone around $9 and after staying more than a month near it started moving in the upward direction. The coin added 19.8 percent to its value for the last seven days and currently stands at $12.8. It also climbed up to #83 with a total market cap of approximately $1.2 billion.
The recent rally is most probably caused by the announced transition from Waves 1.0 to Waves 2.0 in the near future as multiple improvements to the protocol were suggested.
The next potential level of resistance is the former horizontal support from May – to July 2021 around $13.
