Bitcoin Drops Below $40K, But Hash Rate And Mining Remain Promisingly High

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This Week’s Summary

• The cryptocurrency market looks to end the week at a total market capitalization of $1,630 trillion.
• Bitcoin (BITCOMP) is down by almost 19% and trading at around $35,000.
• Ethereum (ETH-X) lost the $3,000 level after a 28% drop.
• XRP (XRP-X) is down by nearly 23% after a rough week.
• Most altcoins are trading in the green after constantly dipping in the red after a week.
• The DeFi sector lost over $3 billion to the Total Value Locked in protocols, which now stands at $92.36 billion.

Cryptocurrency Trends for the Week of Jan. 17-23, 2022: Market Analysis and Performance

The crypto market is experiencing one of the worst dips in its existence. This week, almost all its assets suffered considerable losses. Furthermore, the market capitalization lost over $630 billion throughout the working week. On the weekend, it managed to recover almost $180 billion. Unfortunately, the market cap remains far from the $2 trillion level.

Bitcoin has lost over $10,000 this week, and it only recovered a fraction of it on the weekend. The most popular cryptocurrency in the world lost the $40,000 resistance level. Furthermore, it dropped as low as $33,000 and caused a rush of fear, uncertainty, and doubt across the crypto market.

As the weekend comes to a close, BTC registers a 1.30% increase in price. It’s not much. But, it’s enough to keep it trading above $35,000. Also, it results from many investors choosing to buy the dip. For instance, El Salvador took this opportunity to purchase 410 BTC for only $15 million.

Lastly, as Bitcoin continues to dangle between green and red, its hash rate and mining difficulty remain historically high. This means that more miners joined the blockchain to increase their rewards.

Ethereum lost more than $1,200 this week. The second crypto in command has lost the $4,000 level, and it may soon lose the $3,000 one as well. While some are buying the dip, keeping Ethereum afloat seems more difficult than investors expected. ETH has been recently trading at around $2,427.

Altcoins & DeFi

Ripple’s XRP has bled heavily throughout the week. Not many expected it to recover the precious $1 level. However, now, even fewer expect it to remain above $0.5. The coin managed to regain 5% of its losses over the weekend. However, it doesn’t improve its position that much. XRP has been recently trading at around $0.60.

Elsewhere, most altcoins have been trading in the green for the past 24 hours. Unfortunately, it is too little too late to help them recover the massive losses they suffered mid-week. For instance, Cardano (ADA-X) is down by over 22% compared to last Sunday. Meanwhile, Solana’s (SOL-X) value dropped by almost 35%, and Polkadot dipped 37% (DOT-X). Lastly, Shiba Inu (SHIB-X) is down by nearly 29%, and Dogecoin (DOGE-X) lost over 23% in value points.

The Metaverse sector is also drowning in a gruesome bloodbath. For example, Decentraland (MANA-X) is down by 35%, just like Axie Infinity. Meanwhile, The Sandbox (SAND-X) has recorded a nearly 40% value loss.

The DeFi sector lost over $3 billion to the total value protocols (TVL), which now stands at nearly $92.36 billion. Furthermore, the TVL dropped as low as $80 billion mid-week as it followed the crypto market’s depreciative trend.

What’s in the News?

• According to this report, the Federal Reserve released a Discussion Paper on US CBDC Implementation.
• Crypto.com admitted hackers stole $34 million from its users.
• Michael Saylor said MicroStrategy (MSTR) will never sell its Bitcoin.

Next Week’s Market Forecast

It’s one of the worst periods for the entire financial world, and the crypto market doesn’t make an exception. Throughout the week, almost all crypto assets have traded in the red. The weekend turnaround sees them recovering their losses. We can only hope that this trend will continue for next week and a few more to come.