Bitcoin (BTC) failed to recoup significant losses at the end of the week in weekend trading, instead retreating to a mid-$22,000 area.
BTC/USDT actually fell below USD 22,000 by the end of the Friday session, although buyers saw a downside possibility and moved to offer price support.
While there appears to be enough support to keep the pair above USD 22,000, there is little evidence of an imminent price breakout, especially not like the one we saw in January.
Crypto markets are still coming to grips with the latest crisis, which is the potential collapse of high-profile cryptocurrency bank Silvergate. Investors are likely anxious about another bout of market contagion with echoes of FTX still fresh in the air.
READ: As Silvergate tanks even further, Microstrategy, Coinbase and others jump ship
The US dollar, although it has eased in the past week, has still had an unexpectedly strong year and any continued hawkish rhetoric could keep the dollar higher for a while longer.
Currently, BTC/USDT is holding at USD 22,400 with little in the way of intraday volatility.
A new streak for BTC? – Source: currency.com
Ethereum (ETH) similarly traded sideways over the weekend, failing to break above US$1,600 at any point. The ETH/USDT pair is currently changing hands at US$1560.
ETH volumes are particularly low right now, which does not bode well for a sudden price spike, at least not in the short term.
Altcoins are sticking to the script
Surprises are few and far between among the top-20 altcoin set. Polygon (MATIC), Polkadot (DOT), Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Avalanche (AVAX) continue to be the lowest performers, with each coin’s market capitalization remaining in the low double digits week over week.
Ripple (XRP) and Tron (TRX) have slightly outperformed the BTC and ETH benchmarks, after holding week-to-week losses in the low single digits.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens had a good showing overnight. Decentralized derivatives exchange Synthetix (SNX) climbed 5%, bringing its market cap to $795 million, while decentralized stablecoin exchange basket (CRV) rose 4% to $694 million.
Trust Wallet Token (TWT), Dash (DASH) and SingularityNET (AGIX) were among the worst performers overnight.
The global cryptocurrency market capitalization fell 0.2% to $1.02 billion, while the total value across all DeFi protocols remained relatively flat at $48.2 billion.
