Bitrue Weekly Market Report: Bitcoin Holds Above $20,000, Despite Harsh Market Selling Spree

Report Period: Aug 16 to Aug 22

6 min readAug 23, 2022

Crypto Market Overview

The market took a big hit last week with most of the cryptocurrencies ending up heavy in the red. The total crypto market capitalization came down to slightly above the $1 trillion mark, dropping roughly $15 billion from the previous week’s close. Bitcoin dominance is down below 40% for the first time since the last drop in June. The precise cause of this massive selloff is still unknown, but looking at the much stronger US Dollar at the closing session for the week, it’s possible that investors are looking to put their money in less risky assets.

With most crypto assets booking a double digit percentage loss for the week, many investors are fleeing to stablecoins. At the time of writing the 24H volume of all traded stablecoins is $63.51 billion out of the total industry trading volume of $70.26 billion. This accounts for 90.39% of the overall crypto market’s 24-hour volume. Herd behavior in the market is certainly a cause of this selling spree. There’s no doubt that the current macroeconomic situation still looks gloomy, but since the market has recovered so much in the last few weeks, this move can be considered a needed pull back to realign the market with reality.

BTC and ETH Quick Chart Analysis

BTC 4H Chart

Bitcoin has been forecasted to experience a drop since last week after a forming price bearish divergence. Although the drop is looking much more severe than expected, the lower price channel still holds firmly to support the price. If the selling trend continues, the next support target will be the $20,000 level, and if it doesn’t hold, this year’s low of $17,600 could be deemed as the final target for $BTC. As the market leader, the Bitcoin 4-hourly chart certainly doesn’t look that good for the overall crypto market. There is a forming death crossover that could be an indication of a downward trend. There is also a bearish pennant pattern that the price is currently consolidating at. This week could be a stressful time for the market to wait and see whether this bearish move could exacerbate in the next few weeks.

ETH 4H Chart

Ethereum’s 4-hour chart doesn’t print as many bad signals as Bitcoin. The 13% weekly loss is actually already expected from forming double bearish divergence followed by the head and shoulder pattern. ETH’s local peak is slightly above the $2,000 level that is considered as a very strong psychological support. Although current price is currently below its moving average line, there is hidden bullish divergence signaling a potential upward move in the short term. Key resistance around $1,650 that also coincides with the 200 EMA line could be a confirmation for a bullish price movement. Ethereum price volatility has increased substantially in the last few weeks, this is due to traders and investors’ activities to position themselves ahead of the upcoming “Merge” in September. Broader markets will also factor the next trend for Ethereum, but if the bearish trend continues the $1,450 will be the nearest support area and if it doesn’t hold $1,300 will be the next demand area for $ETH.

News Highlight This Week

$SAND and Its Collaboration with Hell’s Kitchen’s Gordon Ramsay Metaverse

In a partnership with The Sandbox, Famous British celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay is moving the Hell’s Kitchen reality show to the metaverse. The collaboration will bring the Hell’s Kitchen restaurant live in the virtual ecosystem and feature Gordon Ramsay’s avatar. Ramsay himself, will be part of the new design of Hell’s Kitchen’s virtual surroundings as a restaurateur. The team behind this transition will also host the new metaverse experience on The Sandbox’s ITV Studios. Gordon Ramsay, who will also feature in a limited-edition avatar, expressed his delight at the new development and added that he is excited to be part of this history with The Sandbox.

Although this news is considered beneficial to the project, $SAND doesn’t seem to follow the right direction as the overall market is experiencing pretty harsh selloffs. The current SAND price is hovering around $1, which is confirmed to be the big demand pool for its price to jump when the market condition improves. Hell Kitchen is just another example of enterprises seeking to keep up with the trendy choice of digitalization of content. With the current downturn that is happening, it just brings another opportunity for newcomers to spread their wings and pump up their gains through the virtual world.

Cardano’s Upcoming Vasil Upgrade Could Be A Boon For $ADA

Cardano is currently testing its Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) in a new mixed-node testnet. The test result is expected to be a key point whether candidate 1.35.3 is ready to go as part of the upcoming Vasil hard fork. The test conducted last week expressed some desire for more testing before the release as a critical defect found in the previous release 1.35.2. So far, many operators have used this new-mixed testnet, and they are giving good feedback. If the 75% SPO minimum requirement has already upgraded and test their mainnet node to the newest version, a Vasil hard fork combinator (HCF) event is expected to take place in the next week in the testnet, and if — as everyone expects — there are no issues, there is a decent chance we will see the Vasil HCF on the Cardano mainnet before the end of this month.

$ADA by the time of this writing is priced around $0.45 down 24% from the high of almost $0.60 from its recent short rallies. Despite the good news, the Cardano project is still impacted from the systemic selling pressure of the overall crypto market. Currently the blockchain 7-day average revenue is $12,000 according to the latest report on cryptofees.info. This shows that the community still continues to strongly support the project, rest assured that $ADA will storm through this winter cycle and reach another high in the next bull run.

Upcoming Events for This Week

Finfellas Crypto II Virtual Event - 23th-25th August 2022 : It is a virtual event that features real-life stories from real Fintech Professionals and entrepreneurs. Participants will have the opportunity to network with key people that in-charge of some of the biggest crypto projects in the space right now.
AIBC Balkans/CIS Belgrade - Serbia 22th-25th August 2022 : A globally recognized nexus for networking, industrial cross-pollination, education and investment, AIBC hosts the best and the brightest of the region for three days of panel discussions, keynote speeches, Start-up Pitches and an endless list of opportunities to meet the movers and shakers of the industry.
Coinfest Asia 2022 — Bali, Indonesia 25th-26th August 2022 : Premier crypto, blockchain, web3, and NFT Festival happening in Asia this year. This year’s theme “The Future” brings together regulators, industry leaders, developer communities, and entrepreneurs to share global insights and regional opportunities.