Bitcoin, Ether, Major Altcoins – Weekly Market Update January 10, 2022

The total crypto market cap erased $300 billion from its value for the last seven days and now stands at $1,95 billion. The top 10 coins were all in red for the same time period with Terra (LUNA) and Solana (SOL) being the worst performers with 22 and 20.4 percent of losses respectively. Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading at $41,500 while ether (ETH) is at $3,105.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin closed the trading day on Sunday, January 2 at $47,273 after failing to break above the 200-day Simple Moving Average on the daily timeframe for the fifth consecutive day.

The trading volumes continued to decrease and the Relative Strength Index (RSI) remained in the oversold area.

The biggest cryptocurrency ended the seven-day period with a 7 percent loss.

On Monday, the selloff continued and the BTC/USDT pair fell further down to $46,413, temporarily breaking into the newly established short-term support area between $45,500 and $46,000. However, a general rule in technical analysis is that a support line gets weaker with every re-test. Still, the current price action has some similarities to the September 2020 and the fight for the $10,000 mark.

It was starting to look like the BTC bulls were willing to wait for the outcome of the next Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting at the end of January before acting.

The Tuesday session was no different and bitcoin dropped to $45,835. It is worth noting that buyers pushed the price up to $47,500 during intraday, but the move was fully retraced in the evening part of the trading.

The third working day of the week came with a flash crash as BTC moved below the mentioned horizontal support and closed the day at $43,500.

The market was still trying to absorb the Federal Reserve’s FOMC meeting minutes from December where a large number of the participants shared the same view that more interest rate hikes will be required in 2022 to tackle inflation. Bitcoin formed a small red candle on Thursday, January 6 but remained relatively stable above $43,000.

On Friday, however, it continued to move South, losing 4 percent to stop at $41,500 at the daily candle close, but not before hitting $40,700 during intraday.

The weekend of January 8-9 started with a flat session on Saturday. The biggest cryptocurrency managed to find support at the September 2021 low.

On Sunday, it attempted a reversal to the upside, but the momentum was still not on the bulls’ side.

BTC is currently trading lower, at $41,500.

ETH/USD

The Ethereum Project token ETH ended the trading session on Sunday, January 2 at $3,828. For the first time since October 2021, the coin was trading below the $3,900 weekly support line. On the other hand, it was still in a bull flag-like pattern formation on the bigger timeframe.

On Monday, the ether fell down to $3,764 in a full retrace of the move from the previous session.

Then on Tuesday, it first jumped to $3,900 in the morning, then came back down to the zone around $3,700 in the evening after suffering rejection at the 21-day EMA. The trading volumes continued to fall on average and leading altcoin was once again building a bear flag below the already-mentioned former horizontal support. Another drop and re-test of the lower boundary of the downtrend channel might result in breaking it, opening the door for a re-visit of the area below $3,500.

This is precisely what happened during the mid-week session on Wednesday when ETH lost 6.6 percent to reach $3,540, below the downtrend corridor.

The selloff continued on Thursday, January 6 when the reversal to the downside was confirmed by a drop below the 200-day EMA, down to $3,410.

Then on Friday, the ether registered its third consecutive day in red by falling below the previously stable S/R level around $3,300. This resulted in a 6 percent loss.

The first day of the weekend came with another low – $2,997 as ETH lost the $3k level for the first time since September 30.

Then on Sunday, it started moving upwards, reaching $3,151 on its first green day since January 4.

The coin is currently trading at $3,100.

Leading Majors

• Chainlink (LINK)

LINK was one of the leading altcoin projects once, providing the newly born DeFi ecosystem with data oracle integrations. It was even considered a safe haven during times of severe corrections, so maybe it is no surprise that the coin underperformed during the 2021 bull run. Now it seems like the coin is once again on the move when the rest of the market is bleeding, adding 26 percent to its valuation for the last seven days and 47 percent since the beginning of December.

The coin moved above its 21-period EMA on the weekly chart and is rapidly building its way up towards the major horizontal resistance around $34.

The LINK token climbed up to #16 on CoinGecko’s Top 100 list with a total market capitalization of approximately $12.5 billion. Resistance can be expected in the current zone around $27-$28. Support at $25 – where VPVR’s point of control is located.

Altcoin of the Week

Our Altcoin of the week is Internet Computer (ICP). A former Top 10 coin, ICP recently found its bottom at around $25 after losing 72 percent of its value since its September high. It is more than 60 percent up since then.

The ICP/USDT pair is 32 percent up on a weekly basis, still below its weekly highs, but close to the former support on the daily timeframe in the $38-$40 zone. This is also the next level to beat on the way up. Potential support at $30.

The price rally is probably caused by the recent news for the launch of the cross-chain bridge Terabethia that enables ERC-20 tokens to be compatible with the ICP blockchain.

The Internet Computer coin is currently ranked at #27 with a market cap of approximately $6.8 billion.

It is currently trading at $34.6.