Bitcoin, Ether, Major Altcoins – Weekly Market Update January 3, 2022

The total crypto market cap erased $137 billion from its value for the last seven days and now stands at $2,25 billion. The top 10 coins were all in red for the same time period with Solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP) being the worst performers with 11.6 and 8.3 percent of losses respectively. Bitcoin (BTC) is currently trading at $47,276 while ether (ETH) is at $3,830.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin closed the trading day on Sunday, December 26 at $50,770. Bulls managed to push the price above the 21 and 200-day moving averages once again and ended the seven-day period with an 8 percent of increase, also engulfing the previous candle on the weekly timeframe.

However, we could clearly see a head and shoulders pattern being built on both the daily and weekly timeframes with the right shoulders expected to form right above the $52,000 mark. It is also worth noting that the biggest cryptocurrency is still trading below the 21-period EMA on the weekly timeframe, which usually means bears are in control.

The BTC/USDT pair remained flat at the end of the trading session on Monday after failing to break above the mentioned resistance at around $52k. The coin has been unable to surpass it since December 4, adding to its stability.

Sellers came out strong on Tuesday, December 28 pushing the price down to $47,600, which resulted in a 6 percent decrease and the confirmation of the right shoulder formation. A break below the $41,000 zone where the neckline is located would fully close the pattern.

The mid-week session on Wednesday brought no change in the market behavior. Bitcoin fell further down to $46,440 and lost the volume profile biggest zone in this area.

On Thursday, December 30 the BTC/USDT pair painted a small green candle on the daily chart as the $45,500-$46,000 area was once again confirmed as solid short-term support.

On Friday it created the exact same candle but in the opposite direction, erasing the gains from the previous day after suffering rejection at the 200-day SMA.

Bitcoin closed the month of December with a 19 percent loss. However, it managed to add 60 percent to its value on a yearly basis.

The coin jumped 3 percent up to $47,700 on Saturday, January 1 starting 2022 on a positive note, but on Sunday, it corrected its price down to $47,300 as volumes continued to fall.

BTC is currently trading at $47,300.

ETH/USD

The Ethereum Project token ETH continued to trade in a downtrend channel, slowly painting a bull flag consolidation pattern. On the other hand, the selling pressure was increasing as the weekly support line right below $4,000 was getting weaker and weaker.

To be more precise, ETH/USDT pair was drawing a bear flag within a bull flag (with the current downtrend channel on the daily timeframe serving as the flag). Meaning that the recent rapid increase in its price, combined with the low volumes could easily result in a reversal to the downside.

On Monday, December 27, the ether moved down to $4,040 and lost the 21-day EMA.

Then on Tuesday, it broke below the extremely solid weekly support, eventually closing the session at $3,786 with a 5.8 percent loss.

The move was followed by a third consecutive day in red the coin re-visited the zone around $3,635 for the first time since the December 4 flash crash.

Still, the selling pressure started to ease on Thursday and the ETH token bounced back up from the lower boundary of the mentioned downtrend channel on the daily timeframe to close the day at $3,704.

The Friday session was volatile, but the coin remained in the zone close to the support line. It ended the month of December with a 20 percent loss. As for the year, it was rather successful with its 396 percent of increase for the leading altcoin in 2021.

The first day of the weekend came with a renewed buying activity. Bulls pushed the price up to $3,770 and then to $3,834 on Sunday, January 2. Still, the ether remained below both the weekly support and the 21-day EMA.

What we are seeing on Monday is a continuation of the uptrend. The price is hovering above $4,800.

Leading Majors

• Cosmos (ATOM)

Sometimes described as Layer 0 or Blockchain 3.0, Cosmos is a powerful protocol that allows for multiple blockchains to scale and interoperate with each other, similar to Polkadot.

It is also one of the best performing digital assets in the last few weeks. The coin added more than 80 percent after hitting a 3-month low in mid-December and is now trading close to $40.

The ATOM/USDT pair peaked at $37.10 on Saturday, January 1, and moved up to #20 on CoinGecko’s Top 100 list with a total market cap of $10.2 billion.

The coin consolidated around the 21-day EMA in the last few days of December and is now looking ready to break above its November highs.

Altcoin of the week

Our Altcoin of the week is yearn.finance (YFI). One of the original DeFi tokens, YFI continued to surge in price during the last seven days. It added 28 percent for the period and successfully broke the diagonal downtrend on the bigger timeframe.

The YFI/USDT pair also almost doubled in value since the project leads announced a token buyback in mid-December, which significantly improved its tokenomics.

The coin peaked at $39,436 on Sunday, January 2, and moved up to #95 on CoinGecko’s Top 100 list with a total market cap of approximately $1.44 billion.

From a technical analysis perspective, YFI completed a bull flag consolidation pattern in the 20-28 December period and successfully resumed the uptrend in the subsequent days. The next target for buyers will be to surpass the September peak of $43,000. Potential support at the $37,000- $37,500 zone.

As of the time of writing, the coin is trading at $40,190.