Bitcoin Slips Below $48,000 As Altcoins Thrive

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This Week’s Summary

• The cryptocurrency market looks to end the week at a total market capitalization of $2,217 trillion.
• Bitcoin (BITCOMP) is down by almost 4% and struggling to stay above $47,000.
• Ethereum (ETH-X) is down by almost 3% after a rough week.
• XRP (XRP-X) calls it even with a slight 0.6% increase over the past seven days.
• Most altcoins are in the red. However, LUNA and a handful of others are surging.
• The DeFi sector lost almost $3 billion from the Total Value Locked in protocols, which now stands at $97.62 billion.

Cryptocurrency Trends for the Week of Dec. 13–19, 2021: Market Analysis and Performance

The crypto market is struggling to be cheerful, with the year’s end holidays just around the corner. Most of its assets are seesawing and, in just seven days, the market capitalization dropped by $100 billion. The market cap could drop below $2 trillion by January with this rhythm.

This week has seen the US Federal Reserve leave rates unchanged. This helped increase the country’s debt ceiling by $2.5 trillion. Most financial markets rejoiced. Unfortunately, the crypto market wasn’t the case, which scuffles to stay relevant.

This time around last week, Bitcoin had managed to climb above $50,000. Following a disappointing turn of events, the king coin is struggling to stay between $45 thousand and $50 thousand this Sunday. At the time of writing, BTC was trading at around $47,225.96.

Ethereum lost all its holiday cheer after dropping under the $4 thousand level. It’s been a rough few weeks for the second crypto in command, which is now on a slippery slope. At the time of writing, ETH was trading at $3,929.55.

Altcoins & DeFi

Ripple’s XRP is not doing well, but it's not fairing badly either. In fact, it has been trading at a similar value as it was last week, just above $0.8. Its recent form has not been optimistic. However, it’s not terrible either, considering XRP has been one of this year’s poorest performers in the crypto market.

Elsewhere, Cardano (ADA-X) is down by almost 5%. At the time of writing, it was trading at only $1.28. And, if it continues this way, it could very well drop below the $1 level by next month.

Polkadot (DOT-X) is down by 13%, which means it is now out of the top-10 cryptocurrencies by market cap. In its place, Terra’s LUNA climbed all the way to 9th place. LUNA managed this spectacular feat after a remarkable 23% surge. Meanwhile, Solana (SOL-X) is up by 8%, and Avalanche has also increased by nearly 30%.

The Metaverse sector continues to bleed from all sides. This week has been an unforeseen bloodbath for this part of the crypto market. For instance, Decentraland (MANA-X) is down by nearly 6%, and Axie Infinity dropped by more than 4%, similar to Sandbox (SAND-X).

The DeFi sector lost roughly $3 billion from the total value protocols (TVL), which now stands at nearly $97.62 billion.

What’s in the News?

• According to a report, Russia is considering a complete ban on cryptocurrencies.
• Soon, Shopify (SHOP) will allow users to mint, sell, and trade NFTs.
• This week, Paraguay passed a bill that allows Bitcoin mining.

Next Week’s Market Forecast

With less than two weeks of 2021 left, the crypto market does not have many reasons to celebrate.  After a spectacular surge mid-year, the digital asset industry is now losing a good chunk of its gains. Now, it can only hope in a Christmas miracle to help it enter the New Year on a high.