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This Week’s Summary
- The cryptocurrency market looks to end the week at a total market capitalization of $1,950 trillion.
- Bitcoin (BITCOMP) is up by roughly 5% after another successful weekly run.
- Ethereum (ETH-X) has increased by over 4% over the past seven days.
- XRP (XRP-X) records a spectacular 60% value boost over the week.
- Dogecoin (DOGE-X), Polkadot, and Cardano (ADA-X) end the week with significant value boosts.
- The DeFi sector added almost $1 billion to the total value protocols (TVL).
Cryptocurrency Trends for the Week of Aug. 9-15: Performance and Analysis
Another week of thrills and chills for the cryptocurrency market comes to an end. For the first time since May, the market capitalization topped the $2 billion frontiers on Saturday. However, despite the momentous surge, it didn’t manage to stay there for more than 16 hours. At the moment, it stands at around $1,950 trillion, which is still $123 billion more than this time last Sunday.
Bitcoin had the bulls on its side for a third week in a row. Although this week’s value increase is not that mind-boggling (around 4%), the primary cryptocurrency continues to rise. In fact, it hit $46,000 for the first time in three months. Bitcoin has been recently trading at around $46,078.53.
Ethereum had a seesaw movement throughout the week. It didn’t grow too much, but it didn’t lose too much either. Ethereum has been recently trading at around $3,170.90, close to the same value that it registered seven days ago.
The biggest surprise of the week comes from Ripple’s XRP, which registered a sensational 60% increase in price to trade well above $1 again. XRP has been recently trading at around $1.27.
Most of the digital assets have traded in the green throughout the week. For instance, Cardano registered a 45% value boost and has been recently trading at around $2.12. Elsewhere, Polkadot is up by 12%, Dogecoin has increased by 20%, and Binance Coin (BNB-X) is up by more than 15%. The DeFi sector gained roughly $1 billion in total value protocols (TVL), now at nearly $80.52 billion.
Undoubtedly, this week’s main headline was held by the surprise hack attack on PolyNetwork that drained the DeFi protocol of more than $600 million. On Tuesday, a hacker exploited a flaw in the protocol’s smart contracts code to siphon more than half a billion USD. After making the attack public, PolyNetwork pleaded with the hacker to return the money.
As it transpires from recent reports, the hacker did it “for fun,” and by the weekend, it had already returned most of the stolen funds. It seems that the hacker discovered the flaw and wanted to make the protocol developers know about it without telling their support team.
While PolyNetwork recovered most of the funds, the event was spectacular enough to ripple through the market and make a few waves. The overall consensus is that DeFi is still in an experimental phase that will spur more malicious attacks. Unfortunately, not all of them will have the same “peaceful” resolutions. Above all, the need for third-party audits for DeFi protocols is more imperative than ever.
What’s in the News?
- Senators disagree on regulating the crypto space and release a cryptocurrency amendment.
- A new survey shows that over 30% of Canadians are cryptocurrency investors.
Next Week’s Market Forecast
Despite the PolyNetwork's somewhat “pacifist” hack, it was a good week for the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin and most of the altcoins recorded significant value boosts, and the sentiment is once again positive across the board. After all, even XRP seems to benefit from the investors’ trust.
Looking ahead, we can only hope that BTC will top $50 thousand again and drag most of the pursuing altcoins outside their comfort zones.
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