Crypto Market Updates

The cryptocurrency market added $71 billion to its market cap during the last seven days and now stands at $1,049 billion. The top 10 coins were all in green for the same period. Bitcoin (BTC) and cardano (ADA) are the biggest gainers, with 9.7% and 8.2%, respectively. BTC currently trades at $22,844 while ether (ETH) is at 1,625.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin closed the trading week of Jan. 9-15 at $20,880 – the last formed lower high on the weekly timeframe chart, which was the next major resistance in front of bulls.

The coin also hit the 200-day EMA for the first time since April 6, 2022, which ended its 7-day-long streak of green candles.

The price rally resulted in a 22% increase on a weekly basis – the biggest one-week jump since February 2021.

On Monday, Jan. 16, the new trading period started with a continuation of the uptrend. During intraday, BTC touched the $21,500 mark and closed the session at $21,200. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) was already in the overbought zone as the 24-hour trading volumes continued to be stable above the 14-day average.

Buyers attempted to consolidate and push the price above $22,000 but were rejected right above the mentioned EMA, closing Tuesday flat.

The third day of the workweek came with high volatility and drop to $20,673 in the evening as the United States Department of Justice charged the Hong Kong-registered exchange Bitzlato with money laundering in a major announcement that colored the market in the red.

Early on Thursday, the BTC/USDT pair struggled with the 200-day EMA and the closest and most important short-term horizontal resistance – $20,900. At the same time, the price stabilized above the 21-period EMA and the long-term uptrend diagonal support. We witnessed the creation of a short green candle to $20,950.

The Friday session was slightly different. Bitcoin rallied all the way up to $22,740, reaching the long-term diagonal resistance for the first time since April 2022. Another 7.5% was added to its valuation.

The weekend of Jan. 21-22 started with a push to the monthly resistance line at $23,300 on Saturday. The rejection there resulted in a pullback.

Then on Sunday, the coin remained flat in the above-mentioned area.

What we are seeing early in the new week is a small green candle on the daily chart.

ETH/USD

The Ethereum Project token ETH added 20% to its valuation for Jan. 9-15. The coin successfully broke out of the Bearish Pennant formation, fully invalidating it, and also managed to surpass all major EMAs on the daily timeframe chart.

On Monday, Jan. 16, the ETH/USDT pair formed its ninth consecutive green candle and increased to $1,580. The ether even managed to briefly climb above the $1,600 mark, the second-lowest high formed on the weekly chart before the market changed its direction.

The Tuesday session dropped to $1,560 as the RSI reverted to the downside while the trading volumes remained slightly below the 14-day average.

The mid-week session on Wednesday came with another rejection at $1,600 – the fourth in the last five trading days. The leading altcoin was highly volatile, moving in the $1,600-$1,500 area before closing at $1,511 at the 200-day EMA.

On Thursday, Jan. 19, the ether ended its consolidation phase with a 3% increase to $1,550.

The last day of the workweek was no different. ETH climbed above the next lower high on the chart and reached $1,658, corresponding to a 7% increase.

On the first day of the weekend, bulls finally managed to touch the monthly horizontal resistance at $1,680 but suffered a rejection which drove the price down to $1,630.

On Sunday, the biggest altcoin remained flat in a potential consolidation before the next leg up.

As of the time of writing this market update on Monday, there are no significant price changes.

Leading Majors

• Curve DAO (CRV)

Curve gained popularity during the so-called DeFi summer of 2020, which more or less triggered the last bull run. It is currently the fourth biggest protocol by total value locked (TVL) across all major blockchains, with more than $4.5 billion of user funds being used on its decentralized exchange and automated market maker (AMM) pools and staking services.

The CRV token was one of the best-performing digital assets during the last seven days. It grew by 28%, making it a total of 100% for the last three weeks.

The driving factors behind the surge in the price are unknown but can be related to the upcoming release of the crvUSD stablecoin and the renewed interest in token swaps and pool usage.

The CRV/USDT pair successfully broke above the last lower high on the weekly chart and surpassed both the 21-period EMA and the long-term diagonal resistance line on that timeframe.

Next for bulls will be to push the price up to the next resistance area – $1.4-$1.5.

Potential support might be formed at the psychological level of $1.

Curve DAO is currently ranked at #58 with a market cap of $795 million.

Altcoin of the week

Our Altcoin of the week is Optimism (OP). The Layer-2 blockchain built on Ethereum continues to grow in terms of TVL and token utilization.

The Optimism network was the fastest-growing chain during the last 30 days but continues to lag behind its main competitor – Arbitrum.

Although the network fees on Optimism are paid in ETH, the protocol has its native OP token that gives users special voting rights and other benefits.

On top of that, it is used in different farming pools and staking initiatives across the DeFi protocols.

The OP/USDT pair made a new all-time high by hitting a weekly high of $2.5 after adding 19% for the last seven-day period. It is now in price exploration, with the nearest support in the $1.8-$1.9 area. It is worth noting that the OP tokens currently in circulation are just 5%of the total supply.

OP is ranked at #87 on CoinGecko with a total market cap of $485 million.

The total crypto market cap is down by $9 billion for the period since Monday and now stands at $967 billion. The top ten currencies are all in red for the day, with dogecoin (DOGE) and polygon (MATIC) being the worst performers, with 5.2% and 4.4% of losses respectively. At the time of writing bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $20,790. Ether (ETH) is at $1,524.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin closed the trading day on Sunday, Jan. 15, flat at $20,880 – the last formed lower high on the weekly timeframe chart, which was the next major resistance in front of bulls.

The coin also hit the 200-day EMA for the first time since Apr. 6, 2022, which ended its 7-day-long streak of green candles.

The price rally, however, resulted in a 22% increase on a weekly basis – the biggest one-week jump since February 2021.

On Monday, the new trading period started with a continuation of the uptrend. During intraday, BTC touched the $21,500 mark and closed the session at $21,200. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) was already in the overbought zone as the 24-hour trading volumes remained stable above the 14-day average.

Buyers attempted to consolidate and push the price above $22,000 but were rejected right above the mentioned EMA, closing Tuesday flat.

The third day of the workweek came with high volatility and dropped to $20,673 in the evening as the United States Department of Justice charged the Hong Kong-registered exchange Bitzlato with money laundering in a major announcement that colored the market in the red.

On the 1-week chart, $20,900 remains the closest and most important horizontal resistance, while the biggest cryptocurrency is stable above the 21-period EMA and the long-term uptrend diagonal support.

What we are seeing early on Thursday is a short green candle to $20,800.

ETH/USD

The Ethereum Project token ETH followed BTC closely on its way up, adding 20% to its valuation for the last seven days. The coin successfully broke out of the Bearish Pennant formation, fully invalidating it, and also managed to surpass all major EMAs on the daily timeframe chart.

On Monday, January 16 the ETH/USDT pair formed its ninth consecutive green candle and moved further up to $1,580. The ether even managed to briefly climb above the $1,600 mark, the second-lowest high formed on the weekly chart before the market changed its direction.

The Tuesday session dropped to $1,560 as the RSI reverted to the downside while the trading volumes remained slightly below the 14-day average.

The mid-week session on Wednesday came with another rejection at $1,600 – the fourth in the last five trading days. The leading altcoin was highly volatile, moving in the $1,600-$1,500 area before closing at $1,511 at the 200-day EMA.

The last two tops on the 1D chart and the price action between them can be interpreted as a Cup and Handle pattern with a breakout point at $1,600.

As of the time of writing this market update, the ether is trading slightly higher – at $1,524.

The cryptocurrency market added $127 billion to its market cap during the last seven days and now stands at $979 billion. The top 10 coins were all in green for the same period. Bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) are the biggest gainers with 22% and 20% gains, respectively. Bitcoin is currently trading at $20,820, while ether is at 1,544.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin closed the Jan. 2-8 trading week at $17,190, above the $16,800-$17,000 short-term resistance for the first time since mid-December. The move resulted in a 3.2% of price increase weekly.

On Jan. 9, the new seven-day trading period started with a push above the mentioned horizontal obstacle as buyers were looking to extend the uptrend further up. BTC hit $17,400 early in the day but easily gave up the gains later in the session.

On Tuesday, we saw the coin pump above $17,400 again as another 1.7% was added and the price was already stable above the range mid-zone.

The third day of the workweek came with a fourth consecutive green candle on the daily chart for the biggest cryptocurrency. It surpassed the range high at $17,600 and was already looking at the former multi-timeframe support in the $18,500-$18,800 area.

The previously-discussed bull flag on the weekly chart was invalidated and the 24-hour trading volumes were already stable above the 14-day average. Thanks to the good CPI inflation data from the United States, bitcoin broke out of the range and closed the Thursday session at $18,830 with a 5% price increase.

The trading day on Friday was no different and the coin continued to rally. This time it hit $19,930 and moved well into the former weekly support area. The 21-period EMA on the 1-week chart was also broken.

The weekend of Jan. 14-15 started with a push to the 200-day EMA on Saturday, right below the $21,000 mark. Bitcoin was going parabolic testing the mentioned level for the second time since October.

On Sunday, the coin remained flat. It is still relatively stable in the early trading hours on Jan. 16.

ETH/USD

ETH closed the week of January 2-8 at $1,290, which corresponded to a 7.5% increase on a seven-day basis – the biggest one-week increase since the end of Oct. 22.

On Monday, Jan. 9, the coin moved above the $1,300 mark and added 3 more percent as the mid $1,300s was expected to be the next short-term obstacle for buyers.

The Tuesday session, however, was no different and the biggest altcoin continued to rally, breaking into the mentioned zone.

The mid-week trading on Wednesday came with a solid 5% push to $1,400. On the weekly timeframe, it already broke above the higher end of the Bear Pennant formation invalidating it and surpassing the range high.

The price of ether continued to surge on Thursday, hitting the mid-term diagonal resistance on the daily chart.

The good economic data from the United States and the more dovish comments from the Federal Reserve members allowed risk assets to rally. BTC and ETH were the two receiving the biggest inflow.

The ETH/USDT pair moved above the mentioned diagonal on Friday and hit $1,450 for the first time since early November 2022. It also managed to stabilize above the short EMA on the 1-week chart and was looking to climb above the next major resistance zone on the chart – $1,530-$1,620.

The first day of the weekend came with a 7% increase to $1,540. Still, after seven consecutive days in green, it was time for proper consolidation.

The coin remained flat on Sunday and is trading at $1,544 as of the time of writing this market update on Monday.

Leading Majors

• Avalanche (AVAX)

AVAX was among the best-performing digital assets on the Top 100 list last week. The native token of the Avalanche layer 1 blockchain protocol added 40% to its market cap for the period and reached the $18.5 mark for the first time since early November 2022.

The main driving factor behind the price rally is the announced partnership between Ava Labs (the company building Avalanche) and Amazon Web Services, according to which the cloud-computing platform will offer full infrastructure and dApp support to the Avalanche blockchain allowing developers to launch a node and manage it on AWS easily.

The AVAX/USDT pair reacted instantly and the price skyrocketed above the last weekly high and the mid-term diagonal resistance on the bigger timeframe charts. It also broke into the formed horizontal support in the $15-$16 area and temporarily surpassed the 21-period EMA.

A potential pullback to $14 will help the token consolidate above the former resistance and the mentioned diagonal before making the next leg up.

Avalanche is currently ranked at #18 on CoinGecko with a total market cap of $5.12 billion.

Altcoin of the week

Our altcoin of the week is Aptos (APT). Aptos is an independent layer 1 blockchain solution built using the Move coding language. Former Diem contributors started the protocol after the Meta-backed project was canceled.

Aptos was heavily criticized after its main net launch in late 2022 as it didn’t live up to the expectations to deliver a highly scalable and fast solution. The price quickly erased 80% of its valuation before bottoming at $3 around Christmas.

The new year, however, has been generous to Aptos so far. The APT/USDT pair increased by 150% in less than three weeks.

In general, the Aptos ecosystem development and the renewed interest in the crypto market helped the altcoin rally. It is now close to its highest-ever weekly candle close at $9.8.

Looking at the daily chart, we can expect support and consolidation in the zone above $7, while $8 and $10 remain the next two targets for bulls.

Aptos is currently ranked at #39 with a market cap of $1.3 billion.

Below is the 1-D chart.

The crypto market added $46 billion to its market cap during the last seven days and now stands at $853 billion. The top 10 coins were all in green for the same period. Cardano (ADA) and binance coin (BNB) are the biggest gainers, with 30.3% and 14.5%, respectively. Bitcoin (BTC) currently trades at $17,252, while ether (ETH) is at 1,322.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin closed the last week of 2023 with a 1.4% loss and moved down to hit the $16,600 mark. On Sunday, Jan. 1, it started moving in the opposite direction thanks to the renewed short-term (for now) interest from buyers whose hopes for a better 2023 started to reflect on the chart.

The new seven-day period started with a second consecutive green candle on the daily chart on Monday, January 2. Bulls pushed the price to hit the 21-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) around $16,800, but it was not enough to surpass it.

The same happened on Tuesday, but the trading volumes were already starting to increase, climbing above the 14-day average. Still, the dynamic resistance line was hard to break.

The mid-week session on Wednesday came with a solid 1.2% push to hit $17,000 during intraday. The price of BTC ended the day at $16,850 – above the already-mentioned indicator but still below the $17,000 mark, which is currently acting as a mid-level of the wider $16,000-$17,600 range.

Thursday, Jan. 5, saw a small price pullback in a potential short-term consolidation after the 4-day long rally. The coin stayed close to the exponential average line.

The last workday of the week was marked by high volatility. Bitcoin traded in the $16,600-$17,000 range and eventually managed to close above the range mid-point.

The weekend of Jan. 7-8 started slowly with a flat session on Saturday, followed by an uptrend continuation on Sunday – a 1% increase to $17,135.

Overall, the seven-day period ended with a 3.2% growth for the biggest cryptocurrency.

We are seeing another solid green candle early on Monday as bulls are already aiming for the range high at $17,600.

ETH/USD

The Ethereum project token ETH ended 2023 with a small 1.5% loss during the last week of trading. Then the coin remained close to the important $1,200 level on Sunday, Jan. 1 – the midpoint between the $1,270-$1,300 resistance and the $1,140 support on the mid-term timeframe.

On Monday, Jan. 2, the ether moved 1.2% up to $1,215 and stopped there at the daily candle close but not before touching $1,225 above the short-term EMA during intraday.

The Tuesday session was less volatile as bulls were consolidating below the dynamic resistance, probably for the next leg up. The 24-hour trading volumes were higher than the average for the last 14 days, while the RSI was already in its mid-zone.

The third day of the workweek came with а solid 3.4 increase and a big green candle to $1,260. ETH even hit the above-mentioned range high but could not break it.

On Thursday, the leading altcoin corrected its price after the horizontal level rejection during the previous session.

The trading day on Friday was once again good for buyers. Ether managed to close next to the $1,272 line with a 1.5% increase in its price.

The first day of the weekend came with a drop to $1,263, but the pullback was short-lived. It moved 2% more on Sunday to close the week at $1,290.

What we are currently seeing, early on Monday, is a break above the $1,300 mark. ETH is going parabolic above the range high.

Still, the price is yet to hit the Bear Pennant formation upper boundary, which is currently situated somewhere near $1,330.

Leading Majors

• Solana (SOL)

Solana quickly fell out of the Top 10 list in the aftermath of the FTX collapse back in November. However, the relatively loyal and determined community combined with the unexpected support from Vitalik Buterin made the coin interesting to traders once again. The Ethereum co-founder expressed his desire to see the Solana community thrive in the future.

Last week the SOL/USDT pair rallied 46% to become one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies among the first 100 by market cap, second only to Lido. The move became the biggest one-week jump for SOL since August 2021.

The popular Layer 1 solution engulfed the last three red candles on the 1-week chart and is currently trying to consolidate above the formed short-term resistance around the $14 mark.

On the lower timeframes, it is already trading above the 21-day EMA.

Potential support is around $12.

Altcoin of the week

Our Altcoin of the week is The Sandbox (SAND). The popular metaverse project started moving in the upward direction last week and quickly became one of the best-performing digital assets for the period.

The coin added 26% to its valuation while its virtual world competitors Decentraland, Axie Infinity, and GALA also rallied, posting double-digit gains thanks to the renewed interest in the projects.

The Sandbox recently announced their Game Maker v0.8 with new additions to the overall in-world experience.

The SAND/USDT pair is still trading in a downtrend on the larger timeframes after losing 95% in the last year but managed to break above the diagonal resistance line on the 1-day chart and the 21-day EMA. Bulls are now looking to beat the next major horizontal obstacle – the $0.55-$0.60 area, which is 17% from the current trading zone.

If the $0.45 level is successfully broken and the price consolidates above it, we can expect it to provide short to mid-term support.

SAND is currently ranked at #51 with a market cap of $732 million.