Another week, another bear market for crypto. Coins continued their trend of falling in value throughout the week — the same trend that we observed the week prior. There is still a way to go for crypto to fall back to the levels we observed in February and March, however any hopes of bouncing from Q1 into Q2 with an immediate bang appear to be dwindling. Instead, investors will no doubt be thinking about how to make the best of an ever regressing situation, with opportunities for selling short appearing more favorable — or simply holding out and hoping for better things to come around the corner.
It has been a week very similar to the previous in cryptocurrency, with further price falls across major tokens in the market. While there were glimmers of recovery still to be found within some coins, general market sentiment is pessimistic, and crypto is in the grips of a bear market — as it feels like it has been since the beginning of 2022.
Bitcoin started the week by dropping just below the $40k mark — a significant benchmark for both traders and general enthusiasts of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, and something of a headline figure. To the contrary of the overall trend of the week, Bitcoin actually rallied hereon afterwards, climbing to $41k+ by Thursday. Though a mere fraction of the high $47k it saw Q1 out with, it was a brief respite for traders who had experienced tumbling prices for the days before. Bitcoin closed the week floating just above $40k, however come the morning of the new week was trading just south of $39k. Not the start of the week that Bitcoin enthusiasts had planned, and any potential signs of progress observed through the week were soon undone.
Ethereum is approximately 8% down on its previous 7 day position. Starting the week at $3,290, the token is now below $3k and continuing to head into the 2s — again, a milestone figure that is certainly a headline maker against a market leading cryptocurrency. Similarly to Bitcoin, ETH fell below the benchmark price of $3k before bouncing back and driving towards $3,100 around Thursday. At the beginning of this week, Ethereum sits at $2,915, and is looking like it will continue to fall judging by observed market conditions.
A notable trend-bucker last week was actually Shiba Inu. Beginning the week close to $0.00002209, SHIB peaked very close to $0.000030, and traded steadily around the $0.000025–26 mark across the week. Seemingly immune to overall market forces, Shiba proved a source of respite for traders looking to go long. However, with all that said, its current 24hr position is 6% down — proof that even Shiba has been caught by the winds that blow through the cryptocurrency market at the moment.
There were a good handful of double digit fallers amongst the more popular cryptos, with Solana, Cardano and Terra all -10% on their previous 7 day positions. Solana and Cardano are 30% and 43% down across 90 days respectively — indication of the extent to which certain markets have suffered since the turn of the year. There are many cryptos that have lost nearly — if not over — half of their value during 2022, and there is no sign of any turn in fortunes in the short term.
Crypto is currently in a bearish mood, with only short sellers seeming to be the beneficiaries of the movements of the market. Bitcoin and Ethereum have fallen below significant pricing landmarks, and conversations centring around when these tokens will head towards record levels are being put on hold for the moment.
There has been little reliability and consistency in the market over the last couple of weeks, and while there have been significant macro external events that have occurred which contribute to this, traditional stocks have grown steadily during the same period, albeit with similar blips owing to external market forces. Maturity in the market will be pivotal to ensuring that such downturns level out quicker and are less frequent than what the crypto market is currently experiencing.
