Image Source: Pixabay

Weekly Summary:

• The Cryptocurrency market is looking to close the week at a total market capitalization of $2,056 trillion.
• Bitcoin (BITCOMP) increased by nearly 3%, but still couldn’t overcome the $60,000 barrier.
• Ethereum (ETH-X) set a new ATH for the second week in a row after a 4% increase.
• Ripple's XRP (XRP-X) increased by roughly 135% after a minor victory in the lawsuit against SEC.
• Binance Coin (BNB-X) increased by almost 40% to set a new ATH.
• The DeFi sector added more than $3 billion to the total value protocols (TVL).

Crypto Trends: Performance and Analysis

The cryptocurrency market continued to grow exponentially for the second week in a row. As the first full week of April comes to an end, its market capitalization increased by nearly $100 billion to go above and beyond the $2 trillion marks. As of the time of writing, it stands at $2,056 trillion, which is nearly $1,86 trillion more than where it stood this time last year.

Bitcoin continues to struggle with the $60,000 resistance level. This week, it managed to touch it several times, yet not surpass it. The leading cryptocurrency even dipped as low as $55,000 mid-week. However, the bulls regrouped and brought it back up. BTC has recently been trading at around $59,700. So, the all-time high (ATH) set a month ago at $61,683 remains out of reach for the time being.

Ethereum continues to set one ATH after another. This week, it cemented its position above the $2,000 level with a 4.35% increase in value. As a result, it set a new all-time high at $2,197 on Saturday.

Unfortunately, over the weekend, Ethereum lost a few of its gains and it has recently been trading at around $2,130. Looking forward, it has the potential to overcome the nearest level of resistance at $2,200. On the other hand, it may also fall on the closest support cushion at $2,060.

Ripple’s XRP continues to recover after one of the worst periods in its history. This time, it’s all due to the minor wins in the ongoing lawsuit with SEC over money-laundering accusations. A few days ago, Judge Netburn ordered the SEC to withdraw its six subpoenas sent to banks requesting personal financial information from Ripple executives.

The news was enough to boost investors’ trust in XRP. As a result, Ripple’s coin registered a record 136% increase in value. More than that, after being close to exiting the Top-10 cryptos by market cap, XRP jumped straight to the fourth position in the table.

XRP has recently trading at around $1.40. It’s been more than three years since XRP traded at this price. So, there is plenty of optimism about where Ripple’s coin can go from here. The future unraveling of the SEC lawsuit should dictate its trajectory.

While XRP registered a massive win, it still couldn’t overcome Binance Coin on the third position in the market cap table. Binance’s coin has been riding high on a 40% increase in value over the past seven days. Also, it set a new ATH at $487.28 on Saturday. Recently BNB has been trading at around $470.

Other altcoins that registered important gains include Litecoin (LTC-X) with a 28% increase and Stellar (XLM-X) with a 48% value boost. The latter even managed to enter the Top-10, overcoming altcoins like Chainlink (LINK-X) and THETA.

Elsewhere, the DeFi sector recorded another fruitful week by adding more than $3 billion to the total value protocols (TVL), which now stands at nearly $51.55 billion.

What’s in the News?

• Seven-time Super Bowl Champion Tom Brady plans to launch an NFT platform, according to this report.
• A new study by IDC Spain and REALSEC shows that 11% of businesses operating in Spain use blockchain technology.

Next Week’s Market Forecast

After growing by nearly $2 trillion in one year, the cryptocurrency market shows better signs of stability and credibility than ever. The growing popularity of crypto assets, DeFi, and NFTs show that its value can only increase substantially from now on.

This theory is also backed by a recent report from crypto exchange Kraken. The study entitled History in the Making forecasts that Bitcoin may surge as high as $90,000 and Ethereum could reach $15,000 in the coming months. While there is also room for periodic value drops, there is optimism that crypto trading prices can only go North in the long-term.