Crypto Market Updates

The total crypto market cap erased $35 billion from its valuation for the period since Monday and now stands at $1.23 trillion. The top ten coins were all in red for the last 24 hours with Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA) being the worst performers with 9.8 and 8.2 percent of losses respectively. At the time of writing bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $29,243. Ether (ETH) is at $1,940.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin rallied all the way up to $31,400 at the end of last week making it a total of 8.2 percent of price increase for the period from Friday to Sunday. The coin ended the last seven days with a 7.5 percent loss but was still 17 percent above its weekly low of $26,703. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) reached the 33 mark in the oversold zone for the first time since March 2020 on the bigger timeframe chart.

On Monday, May 16 the BTC/USDT pair dropped all the way down to $29,100 before closing the session at $29,850 erasing all gains from the previous day. The January 2021 and July 2021 bottoms once again were acting as a strong support/resistance area.

The biggest cryptocurrency jumped back up to $30,467 on Tuesday, but the bullish momentum was not on its side. We could clearly see the formation of a bear flag pattern on the 4-hour chart with the potential to push the price further down to the sub-$25,000 zone and somewhere near the 200-period EMA on the weekly chart.

The third day of the workweek came with another huge red candle, this time to $28,700 – below the already mentioned multi-timeframe horizontal support.

The 24-hour volumes were once again below their 14-day average value.

What we are seeing midday on Thursday is a temporary reversal. BTC is trading at $29,300.

ETH/USD

Bulls pushed the price of ETH up to $2,150 on Sunday, May 15 which resulted in a 9.6 percent of price increase for the three-day period and 21.5 percent since the coin bottomed at $1,778 on May 12. Still, it registered its sixth consecutive week in red, trading below most of the major support levels except for the long-term horizontal support above $1,700.

In terms of trading volumes, the ether was seeing values below the average for the last 14 sessions. The RSI indicator was at its lowest point since January 2022 on the daily timeframe chart.

On Monday, the ETH/USDT pair fell 5.6 percent down to the area around $2,026. It was forming a rising wedge bearish pattern on the lower-timeframe 4-hour chart where it was rejected on that day.

On Tuesday, May 17 it hit the lower boundary of the wedge bouncing up from it to close the day in green and at $2,090.

The mid-week session on Wednesday came with a successful break below the lower line of the mentioned figure and a 5.6 loss for the ETH token. Next major support (if $1,900 fails) is the $1,700-$1,750 zone.

The leading altcoins is currently trading at $1,950.

The total crypto market cap erased $219 billion from its value in the last seven days and now stands at $1.27 trillion. The top 10 coins were all in red for the same time period with Solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP) being the worst performers losing 27.2 and 25.5 percent of losses respectively. Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading at $29,920 while ether (ETH) is at 2,030.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin closed the trading day on Sunday, May 8 at $34,032 with a 3.8 percent loss. This was the fourth consecutive red candle on the daily chart for the biggest cryptocurrency since it was rejected at the dynamic resistance in the form of the 21-day EMA and the lower boundary of the bear flag pattern.

On Monday, the BTC/USDT pair continued its freefall as the Relative Strength Indicator (RSI) entered the oversold territory while the 24-hour trading volumes increased dramatically. Bears pushed the price down to $30,000 for the first time since the July 2021 market crash.

The Tuesday session was when bulls attempted a comeback. BTC bounced back up to $32,680 intraday and closed the day at $31,112 with some negligible gains.

The mid-week session on Wednesday came with a renewed selling pressure and a new yearly low – this time $29,000.

The inflation data from the United States made the situation even worse as all risk assets across the traditional finance and crypto industry were seeing double-digit losses.

On Thursday, May 12 BTC hit its lowest point since December 2020 by dropping all the way down to $26,782. The session was marked by high volatility, but it started to seem like the overall selling activity has hit its peak.

On Friday, Bitcoin made an unexpected jump to $31,100 before closing the day with a small green candle to $29,300.

The weekend of May 14-15 started with a good session for bulls on Saturday. The BTC/USDT pair climbed up to $30,150. Things did not change much on Sunday and the price rally was extended to $31,300.

The coin is trading lower early on Monday.

ETH/USD

The Ethereum Project token ETH is in a steep downtrend since hitting the 200 MA on the daily timeframe back in early April. It closed the previous week at $2,519 which corresponded to a 10.6 percent loss on a seven-day basis.

The ether lost the weekly and monthly horizontal supports as well as the long-term diagonal support. It also broke below the lower boundary of the bear flag pattern which effectively put it at risk of re-visiting $1,500 in the next weeks or months if we are to follow the technical analysis rules.

On Monday, the ETH/USDT pair found a new 3-month low at $2,227 while erasing another 11 percent. The altcoin market was bleeding as a result of the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin de-peg which sparkled a bank run that led to double-digit losses across all digital assets, particularly LUNA which lost more than 90 percent of its valuation.

We saw a relief bounce to $2,357 on Tuesday, but the market could not stabilize.

The third day of the workweek came with a drop to $2,077 as bulls were preparing to defend the psychological level of $2,000. Even the upcoming Ethereum blockchain merge and migration to Proof of stake consensus mechanism could not ease their selling activity.

On Thursday, May 12 we saw something that many called a capitulation candle. The ether erased another 6 percent of its market cap and closed the session at $1,964 after briefly hitting the $1,777 mark during intraday testing of the July 2021 bottom.

The Friday session was seen as a relief bounce. The ETH token jumped up to $2,015 and formed its second green candle on the daily chart since May 4.

The first day of the weekend came with a continuation of the upside reversal, but the leading altcoin was still below its short-term diagonal downtrend.

On Sunday, bulls pushed the price of ETH up to $2,150 successfully surpassing the mentioned dynamic resistance.

What we are seeing midday on Monday is a pullback to the area around $2,030.

Leading Majors

• Avalanche (AVAX)

It seems like the Layer 1 protocols era is coming to an end and Terra (LUNA) was the first major chain to take a hit. However, AVAX is not far behind in terms of bad performance in the last few weeks and months.

The coin has deleted 80 percent of its market cap since peaking at $149 back in November 2022, 30 percent of which in the last seven days alone. The AVAX/USDT pair was trading 50 percent lower at some point last week in the fallout of the LUNA crash but managed to recover to the zone above its old horizontal support above $30.

DefiLlama shows a 36 percent decrease in the total value locked (TVL) in the Avalanche ecosystem for the same time period.

What we can expect from AVAX if the market turns short-term bullish is to attempt a break above the $40 mark which is an important S/R level on the daily chart. Support in the $25-$30 area.

Altcoin of the week

Our Altcoin of the week is Maker (MKR). The MakerDAO project added 32 percent to its value for the last seven days in an extremely volatile trading period during which we saw the MKR/USDT pair moving up and down the wide range between $960 and $2,278.

MAKER is the creator of the popular collateralized stablecoin DAI which remained stable and hard pegged to the US dollar during last week’s UST crash despite the contracted demand.

MRK is currently trading below the multi-timeframe resistance right above $1,700 and still below the long-term diagonal downtrend on the weekly chart. We can consider the psychological level of $1,000 as the next big support for MAKER.

The coin is ranked at #50 on CoinGecko with a total market cap of approximately $1.37 billion.

Total crypto market cap erased $346 billion from its valuation for the period since Monday and now stands at $1.18 trillion. The top ten coins were all in red for the last 24 hours with Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA) being the worst performers with 35.8 and 32.8 percent of losses respectively. At the time of writing bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $27,780. Ether (ETH) is at $1,900.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin closed the trading day on Sunday, May 8 at $34,032 with a 3.8 percent loss. This was the fourth consecutive red candle on the daily chart for the biggest cryptocurrency since it was rejected at the dynamic resistance in the form of the 21-day EMA and the lower boundary of the bear flag pattern.

It erased 11.7 percent from its market cap on a weekly basis. This was the sixth week in red in a row.

On Monday, the BTC/USDT pair continued its freefall as the Relative Strength Indicator (RSI) entered the oversold territory while the 24-hour trading volumes increased dramatically. Bears pushed the price down to $30,000 for the first time since the July 2021 market crash.

The Tuesday session was when bulls attempted a comeback. BTC bounced back up to $32,680 intraday and closed the day at $31,112 with some negligible gains.

The mid-week session on Wednesday came with a renewed selling pressure and a new yearly low – this time $29,000.

The disappointing inflation data from the United States made the situation even worse as all risk assets across the traditional finance and crypto industry were seeing double-digit losses.

What we are seeing on Thursday, May 12 is a daily low of $26,675 – the lowest point of BTC since December 2020.

ETH/USD

The Ethereum Project token ETH is in a steep downtrend since hitting the 200 MA on the daily timeframe back in early April. Last Sunday, May 8, the coin closed the week at $2,519 which corresponded to a 10.6 percent loss on a seven-day basis.

The ether lost the weekly and monthly horizontal supports as well as the long-term diagonal support. It also broke below the lower boundary of the bear flag pattern which effectively put it at risk of re-visiting $1,500 in the next weeks or months if we are to follow the technical analysis rules.

On Monday, the ETH/USDT pair found a new 3-month low at $2,227 while erasing another 11 percent. The altcoin market was bleeding as a result of the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin de-peg which sparkled a bank run that led to double-digit losses across all digital assets, particularly LUNA which lost more than 90 percent of its valuation.

We saw a relief bounce to $2,357 on Tuesday, but the market could not stabilize.

The third day of the workweek came with a drop to $2,077 as bulls were preparing to defend the psychological level of $2,000. Even the upcoming Ethereum blockchain merge and migration to a Proof of stake consensus mechanism could not ease their selling activity.

What we are seeing on Thursday, May 12 is another 10 percent drop in the price of ETH. It is close to the July 2021 low.

The total crypto market cap erased $207 billion from its value in the last seven days and now stands at $1.53 trillion. The top 10 coins were all in red for the same time period with Terra (LUNA) and Solana (SOL) being the worst performers losing 26.6 and 16.6 percent of losses respectively. Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading at $33,250 while ether (ETH) is at 2,431.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin finished the month of April with a 17.5 percent loss, breaking below the $42,000 support and the 21-period EMA. Looking at the monthly timeframe chart we could clearly see a continuing downtrend, with decreasing volumes while the Relative Strength Indicator remained close to its mid-point.

On Sunday, May 1, BTC bounced back up from its $37,400 low as bulls were able to keep the price floating above the lower end of the long-term uptrend corridor, thus avoiding further selloff.

The new seven-day period started with a solid push to $39,200 in the early hours of trading on Monday but the biggest cryptocurrency was rejected at the newly formed short-term diagonal and closed the Monday session flat.

On Tuesday, bears re-tested again the $37,500 low, which resulted in a 2.2 percent loss for the day as the trading volumes on a 24-hour basis were starting to pick up phase and were larger than the average for the last few weeks.

The mid-week trading on Wednesday came with a sudden increase in the price of BTC. It climbed all the way up to $39,640, closing right at the 21-day EMA while adding 5.3 percent to its valuation. The rally was most probably caused by the comments made by the US Federal Reserve (FED) chairman Jay Powell that an interest rate hike of more than 0.50 percent per meeting is not planned for the moment, which was considered by many to be slightly more dovish comment than expected.

On Thursday, May 5, the BTC/USDT pair registered one of its biggest one-day losses for 2022. It erased 8 percent in a single session and hit a daily low of $35,720 before closing the day at $36,560.

The Friday session brought no change in the trading direction. Bitcoin ended the day at $35,960 for the first time since January 2022.

The weekend of May 7-8 started with a third consecutive red candle on the daily chart on Saturday. Then on Sunday bears were still in full control of the market and successfully pushed the price down to $34,074.

BTC is currently trading even lower, at $33,260 at the time of writing this market update.

ETH/USD

The Ethereum Project token ETH also ended the month of April with a huge loss. It erased 16.7 percent from its market cap and lost both the weekly support line around $3,000 and the long-term uptrend corridor.

The coin kept trading in a bear flag formation on the daily chart and on Monday, May 2 it reached $2,847 in its second green candle in a row.

The ether was one of the top picks for investors mainly because of the upcoming merge that will see the Ethereum blockchain migrate to a Proof of Stake consensus. As per the on-chain data, whales started to accumulate close to the January and March lows.

On Tuesday, the ETH/USDT pair corrected its price down to $2,780, but keep trading above the lower end of the mid-term uptrend corridor (in the already mentioned bear flag formation).

The third day of the workweek came with a surprising 5.8 percent jump and a close near the 21-day EMA at $2,938. The biggest and most popular altcoin continued to move in the upward direction.

Bulls, however, were rejected around the mentioned moving average and fully retraced the gains on Thursday, May 5. The ether lost 6.3 percent and finally lost the diagonal support.

The Friday session was no different and the ETH token once again dropped below the long-term uptrend corridor by closing the session at $2,690.

The first day of the weekend came with a continuation of the downtrend and a new monthly low – $2,641.

On Sunday, bulls were still absent as we saw the price of ETH hit the $2,481 mark before ending the week at $2,519.

The coin is currently trading at $2,426.

Leading Majors

• Polkadot (DOT)

Another Ethereum competitor, Polkadot has been underperforming in the last few weeks despite the positive news that came out of the ecosystem recently.

The launch of the XCM messaging system that enables the uninterrupted token transfer between the different parachains on Polkadot without the need of a bridge and the rapid growth of the Astar ecosystem did not help DOT avoid a freefall.

The DOT/USDT pair lost 13.8 percent during the last seven-day period and is now 34 percent down since breaking below the lower boundary of the bear flag pattern on the weekly chart. The targeted bottom from this trading pattern is around $9.5. At the same time, DOT is still to reach its Head and Shoulders target which is projected to be somewhere around $12.5.

The DOT token is currently ranked at #13 on CoinGecko with a market cap of approximately $13.7 billion, 4.8 billion away from the 10^th spot.

Altcoin of the week

Our altcoin of the week is Tron (TRX). One of the most popular cryptocurrencies from the 2017 bull run, Tron is among the few digital assets to move in the upward direction in the last few weeks.

The TRX/USDT pair added 25 percent to its market cap for the last seven-day period and is already 72 percent up since it bottomed at $0.05 at the end of January 2022. It successfully surpassed the 21-period EMA on the weekly timeframe and is currently trying to break above the resistance zone around $0.09 on the shorter, 1-day chart.

The coin is still 50 percent below its all-time high but is flying on the wings of the recently announced TRON blockchain stablecoin USDD (Decentralized USD) that was launched on May 5. USDD is a project of the TRON DAO and is circulating as a TRC token on the TRON blockchain while being pegged to the U.S. dollar.

TRX is currently ranked at #18 with a total market cap of approximately $8.4 billion. It is trading at $0.084.

The total crypto market cap added $70 billion to its valuation for the period since Monday and now stands at $1.79 trillion. The top ten coins were all in green for the last 24 hours with Cardano (ADA) and Solana (SOL) being the biggest gainers with 6.3 and 4.7 percent increase respectively. At the time of writing bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $39,540. Ether (ETH) is at $2,930.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin finished the month of April with a 17.5 percent loss, breaking below the $42,000 support and the 21-period EMA. Looking at the monthly timeframe chart we could clearly see a continuing downtrend, with decreasing volumes while the Relative Strength Indicator remained close to its mid-point.

On Sunday, May 1, BTC bounced back up from its $37,400 low to close the last day of the week with a 2.5 percent increase. Bulls were able to keep the price floating above the lower end of the long-term uptrend corridor, thus avoiding further selloff.

The new seven-day period started with a solid push to $39,200 in the early hours of trading but the biggest cryptocurrency was rejected at the newly formed short-term diagonal and closed the Monday session flat.

On Tuesday, bears re-tested again the $37,500 low, which resulted in a 2.2 percent loss for the day as the trading volumes on a 24-hour basis were starting to pick up phase and were larger than the average for the last few weeks.

The mid-week trading on Wednesday came with a sudden increase in the price of BTC. It climbed all the way up to $39,640, closing right at the 21-day EMA while adding 5.3 percent to its valuation. The rally was most probably caused by the comments made by the US Federal Reserve (FED) chairman Jay Powell that an interest rate hike of more than 0.50 percent per meeting is not planned for the moment, which was considered by many to be slightly more dovish comment than expected.

What we are seeing midday on Thursday is BTC trading at $39,540.

ETH/USD

The Ethereum Project token ETH also ended the month of April with a huge loss. It erased 16.7 percent from its market cap and lost both the weekly support line around $3,000 and the long-term uptrend corridor.

However, bulls were able to bounce back up from the monthly support zone on May 1 and compensated for all losses registered during the previous session by climbing up to $2,823 or 3.5 percent higher.

The Monday session was no different and the biggest and most popular altcoin continued to move in the upward direction. It closed the daily candle at $2,854.

The ether was one of the top picks for investors mainly because of the upcoming merge that will see the Ethereum blockchain migrate to a Proof of Stake consensus. As per the on-chain data, whales started to accumulate close to the January and March lows.

On Tuesday, the ETH/USDT pair corrected its price down to $2,780, but keep trading above the lower end of the mid-term uptrend corridor (in a bear flag formation).

The third day of the workweek came with a surprising 5.8 percent jump and a close near the 21-day EMA at $2,938.

As of the time of writing the coin is trading slightly lower.

The total crypto market cap erased $41 billion from its value in the last seven days and now stands at $1.73 billion. The top 10 coins were all in red for the same time period with Cardano (ADA) and XRP (XRP) losing 11.8 and 11.6 percent respectively. Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading at $38,800 while ether (ETH) is at 2,814.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin closed the trading day on Sunday, April 24 flat, at $39,500. As previously mentioned, the coin was trading in two bear flag patterns simultaneously on the daily chart, and during the weekend of April 23-24, it broke below the lower boundaries of both suggesting more downside could be in sight.

The BTC/USDT pair ended the previous seven-day period with a less than a percent loss.

On Monday, bears pushed the price all the way down to $38,220 in the early hours of trading to hit the horizontal support, but bulls were quick to react and BTC fully retraced and even erased the losses, eventually closing in green at $40,446.

The Tuesday session was slightly different as the biggest cryptocurrency bounced up to the 21-day EMA of around $40,800 in the morning, but then it crashed, drawing one of the biggest red candles in the last few weeks. It closed the day at $38,133 or 5.8 percent lower and broke all horizontal and diagonal supports in that area.

The mid-week trading day on Wednesday, April 27 came with a relief bounce as Bitcoin broke back into the long-term uptrend corridor and above the horizontal support. It added 3 percent to its market cap.

On Thursday, April 28 the coin continued to move in the upward direction. It reached the $40,370 mark intraday, but was rejected there at the newly formed short-term diagonal downtrend (also where the lower boundary of the bear flags was located).

The Friday session saw bears taking back the initiative. BTC dropped down to $38,600, losing 2.8 percent.

The weekend of April 30-May 1 started with another red candle on Saturday. Bitcoin closed the day at $37,600, below the long-term uptrend corridor. It also ended the month of April with a 17.4 percent loss.

On Sunday, the BTC/USDT pair climbed 2.4 percent up and ended the week right at the mentioned diagonal thus avoiding its invalidation.

What we are seeing midday on Monday is a second consecutive green candle on the daily chart.

ETH/USD

The Ethereum project token ETH closed the trading day on Sunday, April 24 at $2,920 and after a five-day-long losing streak, it found itself below the critical horizontal support around $3,000. The coin dropped 2.2 percent for the previous week and also lost the weekly timeframe support levels.

The ETH/USDT pair opened the new trading period on Monday by following all the way down to $2,793 for the first time since March 18. Buyers, however, absorbed the selling pressure and initiated an upside reversal which resulted in a full retrace. The ether closed the day at $3,000, close to the Volume Profile (VPVR) Point of Control zone.

The Tuesday session came as a shock to bulls. The leading altcoin crashed to $2,806 and lost the long-term uptrend corridor by losing 6.7 percent in a single day of trading.

The third day of the workweek saw ETH bouncing back from the mentioned lows. It jumped back above the diagonal support and ended the session with a 3 percent price increase.

On Thursday, April 28, the ether moved further up to hit $2,981 – right below the 21-day EMA and the old $3,000 horizontal support. Bulls however were rejected there and on the next day – Friday, the ETH/USDT pair fell all the way down to $2,815, which corresponded to a 4.2 percent decrease in price.

The first day of the weekend came with a re-visit of the next horizontal support at $2,700. Here we could also see the lower end of the big bear flag pattern as ETH was already trading below the long-term uptrend corridor.

The coin bounced from the mentioned levels and after ending the 30-day period with a 17 percent loss, added 4 percent on May 1.

The Ethereum token is currently trading at $2,815.

Leading Majors

• Solana (SOL)

Solana is a chain we haven’t looked at in a long time. The once called “Ethereum killer” is underperforming in the last 6 months, but still remains in the Top 10.

In early March the SOL/USDT pair successfully jumped back up from the horizontal support near $80 and even managed to break above the 21-period EMA on the weekly chart and the diagonal downtrend line, but was stopped by bears at $145.

What we see now is another attempt from sellers to invalidate the multi-timeframe support which if successful will open the door for a re-visit of the zone around $45-$50 where the next most actively traded zone as per the Volume Profile Indicator (VPVR) is located.

On the other hand, if the support plays its role again, we can expect an attack of the $150 area, 65 percent above the current position of SOL.

The weekly chart is below.

Altcoin of the week

Our Altcoin of the week is Ethereum Name Service (ENS). This cryptocurrency protocol allows its users to buy and own their unique web3 username linked to an ERC-20 Ethereum address. The decentralized naming unlocks multiple use cases and makes it easier for users to navigate and interact with one another in the crypto world.

The ENS token was one of the few that ended the previous seven-day period in green. It added 59 percent to its valuation after bouncing back from the horizontal resistance near $14. The coin managed to surpass the daily timeframe resistance at $21 and is currently trading above $24.

The main reason for the recent surge in the price of ENS is the recently launched 4-digit domain names and the increased trading volume on the Opensea NFT marketplace.

The Ethereum Name Service is currently ranked at #131 on CoinGecko with a total market cap of approximately $570 million.

The weekly chart is below.