crypto news: Crypto Movement at a Glance: Bitcoin holds $23,000; Merge on the cards for Ether

This week, most cryptocurrencies faced a slight correction as uncertainty split from legacy markets. Despite the minor decline, cryptocurrencies have recovered and stood strong without sharp movements.

Bitcoin started the week trading above the $23,000 level but fell to $22,000 due to increasing pressure, US central bank’s latest interest rate hike, and ongoing tension betweenChina and Taiwan. However, bulls have succeeded in recapturing the $23,000 back the crypto lost its weekly gains.

The second largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, fell to the $1,500 level mid-week. It again gained the $1,700 level on Friday following a consolidation of four days. On a weekly time frame, ETH might not have accumulated enough power to make a sharp move. But, a continued rise could take the price to its resistance at the US$1,785 level soon. The positive sentiment for Ethereum expands as the expectations for the September Merge. If this trend continues, we expect ETH to reach the $1,900 level in a few days. But a failure to close above $1,680 would weaken the bullish argument.

In an interesting turn of events, the largest crypto ecosystem in the world, Binance, has announced to add XRP, Shiba Inu, and Avalanche as its means of payment with the Binance Card. As of now, it will be available only for the residents of the European Economic Area and the Ukrainian refugees who have been given asylum in those countries.

According to a survey by ‘The Balance’ published this week, nearly 39 per cent of American investors are buying even more crypto as they look into new ways to invest and preserve their wealth as the unfolding financial situation becomes more unclear.

In the latest indication of how increasingly traditional investors are becoming involved in cryptocurrencies, Coinbase announced a partnership with BlackRock to provide the asset manager’s clients with easier access to digital asset markets.

Block Inc reported a Q2 profit of $1.47 billion, but only $41 million of it came from BTC trading services. The company attributed this to market volatility and a lack of customer demand. The digital payment company, run by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, had its year-on-year (YoY) profit increase by 29 per cent to $1.47 billion in the second quarter despite sluggish consumer demand and falling bitcoin prices.

Coming to the price action, among the top 100 cryptos by market cap, here are the best and worst-performing cryptos over the past week (Data sourced from Coinmarketcap as of 11.45 hours ITS, August 7, 2022.)

Top 5 crypto gainers during the week:
1. Decred (DCR): 46% up

2. Flow (FLOW): 36% up

3. Trust Wallet Token (TWT): 20% up

4. Optimism (OP): 17% up

5. Quant (QNT: 17% up

Top 5 crypto losers this week:

1. Bitcoin Gold (BTG): 16% down

2. Solana (SOL): 9% down

3. Helium (HNT): 9% down

4. Convex Finance (CVX): 8% down

5. The Graph (GRT): 7% down

(Edul Patel is the CEO and Co-founder of Mudrex)