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Cryptoassets faded in price over the last week as investors played a waiting game on macro data. Bitcoin is stuck around 10% off its early-May highs as investors appear to be keeping powder dry and others are taking profits out of recent gains. 

Bitcoin traded down across the week, falling from just below $28,500 to a low close to $25,500. However, the price recovered somewhat over the weekend and is now trading around $27,000. 

Ether saw similar trends downward, starting just below $1,875, and sinking to just above $1,725 on Friday, before recovering over the weekend to trade around $1,800 this morning. 
 

Bitcoin ownership reaches record high

The number of whole bitcoin holders has reached an all-time high according to data from Glassnode. 

Whole coin ownership - as measured by the number of wallet addresses holding at least one Bitcoin token - has steadily increased over the past 14 years. But while it remained relatively flat over the pandemic years, it soared last year to reach above one million addresses for the first time per the data.

The trend points to a surge in significant ownership at a time when the price of the cryptoasset was falling. Ownership of the token has never been more diffuse and this is a really positive signal for the market and surrounding ecosystem. 

While the long-term outlook for Bitcoin is hard to judge, with economic news becoming clearer in recent weeks and pervasive issues in the banking sector, the cryptoasset could be set to thrive over the next few years with a strong base of ownership in place. 
 

Ethereum faces finalization problems

The Ethereum Network has undergone patching after a series of issues that prevented users from finalizing transactions on 11 and 12 May. 

Users were prevented from finalizing transitions for 25 minutes on 11 May and over an hour on 12 May. Certain validators experienced high traffic volumes which caused the standstill but was rectified quickly by network developers. They are still investigating the cause of the outage. 

The question for ether investors here is whether this could cause a problem for them. If you’re holding the token with no intention to use or sell, then it's not much cause for concern. However, the delay in finalizing transactions could have impacted anyone looking to sell or buy as price levels shifted over the short term. 
 

Bitcoin network eases as PEPE retreats

Major congestion affecting the Bitcoin network appears to be receding in the wake of the PEPE memecoin hype. The price of the cryptoasset has retreated, leaving more room on the Bitcoin network for normal transactions. 

The episode leaves the memecoin looking more like a flash in the pan, with stories of speculators being caught holding large quantities of the token and unable to shift. PEPE surged at the beginning of the month but is now down more than 60% since its all-time high, reflecting a highly speculative short-term boom that has become much rarer in recent times in the cryptoasset market. 

The lesson here is that engaging in short-term speculative hypes is rarely a good idea. Instead, investing in the long-term use cases and utility of cryptoassets is a much more sensible approach. Investors should always be prepared for volatility, especially in a frontier investment class like crypto.

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