Bitcoin fell 1.45% from Aug. 18 to Aug. 25 to US$26,095 as of 8:00 p.m. Friday in Hong Kong, according to CoinMarketCap data. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has been trading below US$30,000 since Aug. 9. Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, fell 1.84% over the week to US$1,654.
On Wednesday, Bitcoin dropped to US$25,628, its lowest point in two months.
The cryptocurrency has been weighed down by numerous factors, including large holders selling during a low-liquidity period, according to Alex Konanykhin, the chief executive officer and founder of Unicoin, an equity-backed crypto that pays dividends.
“Bitcoin is inherently volatile. Its price can be driven down by negative news or by a large sale, especially in late summer when liquidity is at its lowest.”
Coinbase Global, the company behind the largest crypto exchange in the U.S., announced Monday that it acquired an equity stake in Circle Internet Financial, the issuer of USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization. While the size of the equity stake is unknown, Coinbase noted that it will share the revenue from interest on USDC reserves with Circle, based on the amount of stablecoins held on the two platforms.
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which is a multifactorial measure of crypto market sentiment, sank to 37 on Wednesday, its lowest point since March 12 when the index plunged to 32 just two days after the third-largest bank failure in the U.S., the collapse of crypto-friendly Silicon Valley Bank.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell will be speaking at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium later today, along with European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde. Investors will be following the speech for signs on future interest rate decisions.
“Parsing the July Fed minutes, it is clear that policymakers are grappling with the decision to implement further rate hikes as they acknowledge the threat of resurgent inflation,” cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex said in its research report. “All eyes are now on Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s upcoming Jackson Hole speech on the economic outlook.”
The global crypto market capitalization stood at US$1.05 trillion on Friday at 8:00 p.m. in Hong Kong, down 10.25% from US$1.17 trillion a week ago, according to CoinMarketCap data. With a market cap of US$508 billion, Bitcoin represented 48.4% of the market while Ether, valued at US$198 billion, accounted for 18.9%.
Notable Movers: BONE & SUI
Bone, the governance and reward token of the Shiba Inu ecosystem, was this week’s biggest gainer in the top 100, rising 15.71% to US$1.44. Pseudonymous Shiba Inu developer, Shytoshi Kusama, shared a “Shibarium scaling” update on Wednesday. Shibarium, an Ethereum layer-2 chain for Shiba Inu, is currently preparing for a reopening after botching its launch earlier this month.
Sui blockchain’s native coin (SUI) was this week’s second biggest gainer in the top 100, rising 14.22% to US$0.5472.
Next Week: Will Bitcoin fall to US$25,000?
Bitcoin could retrace to the US$25,000 support level next week, but that could set the stage for the next price rally, according to Lucas Kiely, the chief investment officer of digital asset platform Yield App.
“At this point, US$25,000 serves as the next support level, and after that US$20,000. If Bitcoin drops below US$20,000, it could revisit this cycle’s low of US$15,700, especially if the stock market drops to its October 2020 lows. If the stock market stays firm, Bitcoin will likely stay around the current levels,” wrote Kiely, in a statement shared with Forkast.
Unicoin’s Konanykhin said he expects Bitcoin and Ether to close the month of August near their current levels of US$26,000 and US$1,650.
Next week, investors will be looking ahead to the release of the U.S. jobs report on Friday, which includes economic indicators such as nonfarm payrolls typically used by economists to gauge the Fed’s next monetary policy decision.
In the crypto space, U.S.-based crypto exchange Bitstamp will halt trading for SOL, SAND, NEAR, MATIC, MANA, CHZ and AXS, starting next Thursday, to evaluate “recent market developments.” The exchange said that customers in the U.S. will still be able to hold and withdraw these assets.
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