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This Week’s Summary

• The cryptocurrency market looks to end the week at a total market capitalization of $1,018 trillion.
• Bitcoin moved down by nearly 6% after intense seesawing this week.
• Ethereum decreased by almost 8% over the past seven days.
• XRP lost more than 5% in value this week.
• Almost all altcoins have been trading in the red, with a few exceptions.
• The DeFi sector increased the total value of protocols (TVL) to around $48 billion.

Cryptocurrency Trends for the Week of Feb. 6–12, 2023: Market Analysis and Performance

This week, the cryptocurrency market took a considerable blow after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) cracked down on crypto staking. One of the most popular DeFi activities may soon be under strict regulations, enough to negatively impact the entire industry. This development led to an overall drop in the market capitalization of $60 billion. Nevertheless, the market cap remains above the $1 trillion mark for now.

Bitcoin lost over $2,000 of its value following the SEC threat rumors. The king crypto lost a good chunk of its recent gains, which had taken it close to the $24,000 level. Recently, BTC has been seen trading just below the $22,000 mark.

Ethereum also lost considerable value points this week, with its trading value decreasing by 8%. The second crypto in command has struggled to keep its gains since the start of the year. As a result, it seems as though it cannot escape from its comfort zone at around $1,500.

Altcoins & DeFi

Almost all altcoins have been trading in the red, with only a few headed in the other direction. For instance, Polygon rose by 6% this week. However, that is the only one of the notable top-20 cryptos by market cap that has enjoyed a good run.

Meanwhile, XRP moved down by over 5%, like BNB, Cardano, and Polkadot. Moreover, Dogecoin decreased by 9%, Solana by 12%, Dogecoin by 9%, Shiba Inu by 13%, and Avalanche by 11%.

The Metaverse sector has been sitting in the same boat as the rest of the crypto market. For instance, Theta Network moved down by 4%, Axie Infinity by 8%, and Decentraland by 7%. Meanwhile, ApeCoin decreased by 8%, ICP by almost 4%, and The Sandbox by 2%.

The DeFi sector added almost $2.5 billion to the total value of locked protocols (TVL), now at nearly $48.1 billion.

What’s in the News?

• Sam Bankman-Fried can now contact FTX Employees, but there's a catch.
• Turkey will receive crypto aid following the recently devastating earthquakes.
• World of Dypians announces whitelisting for Genesis Land NFTs at a knockdown price.

Next Week’s Crypto Market Forecast

This week, the cryptocurrency market went on a surprising downtrend following SEC’s regulatory crackdown. Some rumored the commission is targeting crypto exchanges like Kraken for their crypto staking strategies. As a result, most of the crypto space has been contracting into a standby position. Unless it reverses this downtrend soon, the industry may return to the depressing pre-2023 values.

About the Author

Born and raised in Romania, and currently living in Spain, the author discovered a knack for writing from a tender age, and even won some minor awards for fiction that didn't pay much.

Iulian became a content writer in 2011, and he is still doing it to some degree of success today. He is currently specialized in cryptocurrencies, technology, online marketing, and social media. In his free time, Iulian likes reading, traveling, and watching sports. His dream is to see Bitcoin reach $100,000 just so he can tell his friends “I told you so!”

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