Crypto Market Cap Nosedives Below $1 Trillion, Bitcoin Price Falls Below $20,000, other Top Crypto Prices in the Red!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Top crypto tokens by market cap – Bitcoin price down 1% at $19,800, Ethereum price at $1450, down about 2.5%
2. Global crypto market cap down about 1.3% in past 24 hours, currently at about $950 billion
3. Top crypto news – ETH 2.0 staking deposit contract records new highs, Hoskinson announces Vasil hard fork may happen sometime in September, and Bitcoin sees exchange outflows while Ethereum records inflows.

CRYPTO MARKET TODAY AT A GLANCE

GLOBAL CRYPTO MARKET OVERVIEW

Total Crypto Market Cap | Source: Tradingview

Jerome Powell’s speech on Friday, 26 August, 2022 during the Jackson Hole Symposium cut in deep into markets all across the world. On the same day as the speech, US indices like the tech-focused Nasdaq and S&P500 lost about 3.9% and 3.4% respectively. As is evident from the chart above, the overall crypto market cap also saw a significant fall of over 6.2% thanks to Powell’s speech. Recent number crunching has shown that Powell’s 8 minute speech on 26 August resulted in over $78 billion lost from the richest Americans due to the fall.

We are moving our policy stance purposefully to a level that will be sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2 percent……Restoring price stability will likely require maintaining a restrictive policy stance for some time. The historical record cautions strongly against prematurely loosening policy. — Jerome Powell, Chair of the Federal Reserve of the United States.

From a technical standpoint for crypto, things seem extremely grim as of now. Prices, which were still able to hold on above the crucial trendline support level (marked in orange) has now been breached. Prices have fallen well below the 50-day moving average (marked in cyan blue), which further adds selling pressures across the board. The overall crypto market cap is also below the critical psychological trillion dollar mark and is currently ranging around $950 billion, bringing it back to mid-July levels in one fell swoop. In about two weeks, the crypto market has lost all the gains it had made in almost four weeks preceding it.

However, on the flip side, the Relative Strength Index is very close to the oversold zone now and thus a further fall could possibly be unlikely. So going forward, we may see a some short side profit booking, and short covering before possibly seeing a resumption in the downward fall. There’s little from a technical standpoint to support any recovery at the moment.

TOTAL VOLUME IN DEFI

According to data from CoinMarketCap, the total volume in DeFi is currently $4.03 billion, 7.22% of the total crypto market 24-hour volume. The volume of all stable coins is now $49.80 billion, which is 89.32% of the total crypto market 24-hour volume.

And, according to DeFiLlama, the total-value-locked in DeFi as of writing this stands around $58.4 billion, down about 1% in the past 24-hours.

TOP CRYPTOS TODAY BY MARKET CAP

BTC/USD | Source: Tradingview

The case for Bitcoin price has gone from bad to worse over the weekend. With a near 6% crash post the Jerome Powell speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium - it has been a continued downward journey for the flagship crypto token. The correction that took place late on Friday, 26 August has now pushed BTC price far below any meaningful support regions. Before this crash, Bitcoin price had been attempting to breach the trendline support (marked in dark blue), but now it has crash well below it. The 50-day moving average (marked in cyan blue) is quite far while the 200-day moving average (marked in purple) seems like a lifetime away.

However, in line with the broader crypto market cap - BTC price are nearing its oversold zone, as per the Relative Strength Index and hence any further major crash can be ruled out for the time being. Short sellers would be covering their positions now, booking profits before resuming their bearish pressures once again. BTC prices have fallen below another psychological mark, the crucial $20,000 mark yet again, and has neared its local lows that were etched back between June and July. So from a technical standpoint, Bitcoin price seems quite weak and needs a major fundamental trigger to see any major recovery.

Ethereum price, which had been able to hold on above the critical 50-day moving average on the charts, when neither the overall crypto market cap nor Bitcoin could - has now crashed below it, pretty much in line with the rest of the market. The crash of 26 August has eroded a large chunk of what it had managed to gain over the past month.

However, there is still some relief for ETH price because it is still above its trendline support of $1240, and with current ETH price around $1450, we are still quite some distance away. And with the highly anticipated Ethereum Merge coming up in less than three weeks, we can expect the altcoin king to take centre stage in terms of recovery in the crypto market. Ethereum has shown one of the best recoveries amongst the top cryptos and we can expect that trend to continue.

OTHER ALTCOINS

RIPPLE (XRP)

Ripple (XRP) price fell about 3% in the past 24-hours and is currently trading at around $0.32 - with a current market cap of $16.04 billion as of writing.

SOLANA (SOL)

SOLANA (SOL) price fell about 4.5% in the past 24-hours and is currently trading at around $34.34 - with a current market cap of $10.6 billion as of writing.

DOGECOIN  (DOGE)

Dogecoin (DOGE) price fell about 2.6% in the past 24-hours and is currently trading at around $0.061 - with a current market cap of $8.2 billion as of writing.

POLYGON (MATIC)

Polygon (MATIC) price fell about 3.8% in the past 24-hours and is currently trading at around $0.77 - with a current market cap of $6.61 billion as of writing.

AVALANCHE (AVAX)

Avalanche (AVAX) price fell about 10.5% in the past 24-hours and is currently trading at around $17.7 - with a current market cap of $5.11 billion as of writing.

TOP CRYPTO NEWS TODAY

1. ETH 2.0 STAKING CONTRACT RECORDS FRESH NEW HIGH

Despite the crypto markets tumbling over the past week and a half, Ethereum stakers and hodlers continue to stake as much as they can to the ETH 2.0 deposit contract to secure a good position as and when the Ethereum Merge finally takes place. With Ethereum price falling below $1500 for the first time in weeks, Ethereum holders bought into the dip. As per data from Glassnode, addresses holding 10+ ETH hit an all-time high. Also, in anticipation of Ethereum’s upgrade to proof of stake, over 13% of ETH’s supply has been sent into the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract. As per the latest insights, the Total Value in the ETH 2.0 Deposit Contract reached an ATH of 13,388,454 ETH.

2. CARDANO VASIL HARD FORK COMING SOON: HOSKINSON

Amid the excitement around Ethereum's Merge, Cardano (ADA) founder Charles Hoskinson has mentioned in his AMA that the Vasil hark fork is just around the corner and may happen sometime in September. If it does really work out, the month of September would become one of the most important months for crypto in recent years as both Ethereum and Cardano would undergo major upgrades that would decide its future going forward.

Vasil Update 08-26-2022 https://t.co/cyRgTkYA9n

— Charles Hoskinson (@IOHK_Charles) August 26, 2022

3. BITCOIN SEES MASSIVE EXCHANGE OUTFLOWS WHILE ETHEREUM SEES NET INFLOWS

Amid bullishness for Ethereum ahead of the Ethereum Merge, fresh new data from exchange flows shows opposing activity for the two top tokens in the crypto space, with the king coin Bitcoin establishing dominance in terms of holding for the long term. Data from Glassnode shows Bitcoin saw nearly $1 billion in exchange outflows, a major positive 'HODLing' activity while Ethereum saw major exchange inflows. Exchange flows are the number of tokens deposited or withdrawn into or out of an exchange wallet. A popular on-chain metric to assess this is Exchange Net Position Change.

TOP CRYPTO GAINERS TODAY

TOP CRYPTO LOSERS TODAY

Prices as of 29th August, 2022