- Fears over global macros and interest rate hikes put a pause on last week’s crypto market rally.
- Bitcoin shrimp continue to pile up, Cardano emerges as the most mature blockchain network, and XRP network activity hits a two-year high.
After a solid show last week, the broader cryptocurrency market is seeing a partial reversal. As a result, the entire crypto market capitalization dropped to less than $1 trillion. Bitcoin pulled back significantly from its 200-week moving average (MA) of $22,800 and failed to give a weekly close above it.
Thus, these levels always act as resistance to Bitcoin. At press time, BTC is trading at a price of $21,248 with a market cap of $405 billion. Interestingly, BTC addresses with less than 1 BTC continued to buy. As a Glassnode on-chain data provider reports:
Bitcoin Shrimp cohort with <1 BTC increased relative holdings in circulation $BTC the offer from 5.2% to over 6.0% since the collapse of LUNA. This equals 156k $BTC added to the prawn chain sales overall.
Courtesy of Glassnode
On the other hand, Bitcoin and crypto came under pressure just ahead of the Fed’s interest rate hike announcement this week. The global macroeconomic environment looks fragile and inflation is soaring. Market analysts are expecting a 75 basis point rate hike from the US central bank. However, some market experts are also suggesting the possibility of a 100 basis point rate hike to rein in the surge in inflation.
Ethereum (ETH) and altcoins under selling pressure
The Ethereum-led altcoin space has seen a strong rally over the past week. Besides, the institutional interest in Ethereum has also been on the rise recently. However, the pullback in the broader crypto space is also putting pressure on Ethereum and other altcoins.
Last Sunday, the price of ETH soared all the way to $1,640. However, it has now corrected more than 10% over the past two days and is currently trading below the $1,450 levels. Over the past few hours, the price of ETH surged from its intraday low of $1,360 following a sudden spike in address activity. Santiment On-Chain Data Provider reported:
A huge spike in address activity emerged today, the largest on record, but over shorter periods of time this activity appears very coordinated, so take that with a grain of salt.
The recent ETH price spike came on news that The Merge upgrade will take place around mid-September.
Besides Ethereum, other major altcoins have undergone a correction. Cardano (ADA) took a dip below 45 cents on Tuesday before recovering. Cardano has become the most developed asset among its peers when it comes to code pushes, issue interactions and much more.
On the other hand, Ripple’s XRP network saw address activity hit a two-year high. Santiment On-Chain Data Provider reports:
XRPNetwork has just reached an important milestone. The number of unique addresses currently interacting on the network exceeded 247,000 in just 4 hours. This is the highest peak recorded since February 2020.