This Week’s Summary

• The Crypto Market ends the week at a total market capitalization of $810 billion.
• Bitcoin (BITCOMP) maintains a similar value to last week’s $16,800.

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• Ethereum (ETH-X) gained almost 3% over the past seven days.
• Ripple lost nearly 1% of its value this week (XRP-X).
• Almost all altcoins are trading in the red, with very few exceptions.
• The DeFi sector dropped the total value of protocols (TVL) to around $38 billion.

Crypto Trends 19-25 December 2022: Market Analysis and Performance

The crypto market is in for a silent Christmas celebration following another drab week this year. Most of its assets are bleeding slightly, and most traders have put their wallets under a holiday lock. Even the market capitalization remains still, seesawing by a few billion on each side of the $810 billion level.

Bitcoin stagnates at around $16,800, seemingly too weak to launch an attack on the dreaded $17k level this year. The king crypto has had an uneventful week, now ending on the back of a minuscule 0.5% increase.

Ethereum is faring only slightly better. The second crypto in command has added around 3% to its value, which is still far from most people’s expectations. ETH has been dabbling in and around the $1,200 threshold for a few weeks. It will likely end the year there with very little optimism in the crypto market to push it further.

Meanwhile, the FTX (FTT-X) saga continues with yet another surprising development. This week, the exchange’s former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, entered the custody of US authorities after his arrest in the Bahamas. He is currently facing criminal charges on multiple accounts, especially after two accomplices pleaded guilty. However, the judge allowed his release on a record-breaking $250 million bail. So, SBF is now back living in his parents’ basement awaiting trial in the billion-dollar lawsuit.

Altcoins & DeFi

Most altcoins are trading in the red, with very few exceptions. For example, XRP is down by almost 1%, similar to BNB, Polygon, and Dogecoin. Meanwhile, Cardano (ADA-X) dropped by over 2%, Polkadot by 5%, and Solana by 7%.

Only a handful of altcoins can take pride in their movements this week. For instance, Litecoin is up by 3% and TRON by nearly 2%.

The Metaverse sector is driving in the green, quite the opposite of the sentiment in the rest of the crypto market. For instance, ApeCoin increased by 2%, ICP by 3%, Axie Infinity by 2%, and Theta Network by 3%. On the other hand, The Sandbox is down by 6% and Decentraland by 1%.

The DeFi sector lost almost $3 billion to the total value of locked protocols (TVL), now at nearly $38.33 billion.

Crypto Market Analysis – What’s in the News?

• Brazil legalized cryptocurrency as a payment option within the country.
• Dypius announced live testing for its Metaverse game with $50k in prizes.
• British Columbia suspended Bitcoin mining requests due to environmental concerns.

Next Week’s Crypto Market Forecast

The crypto market is slowly dragging toward the end of one of the worse years in history. Most of its assets are eager to put this crypto winter behind and stare optimistically towards brighter horizons. This year’s global economic meltdown has taken its toll on the crypto industry, and it is unlikely anything will change with only seven days left.

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