The new year so far has only disappointed cryptocurrency investors.
Only one of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization has seen a price rise over the past seven days. That honor goes to Chainlink which is up to 20%, according to Coingecko. All other major coins posted double-digit percentage losses in the new year.
Bitcoin market leader was actually one of the weakest drops of the week, by comparison. It was down 13% over 7 days, trading at around $ 41,000. Despite this fall, the Bitcoin network set a new record last Sunday, when its hashrate hit its highest level of 203.5 exahashes per second (EH / s), before falling back a few days later.
Bitcoin’s new and short hashrate record showed a 200% increase in power since July last year, when state – wide mining crackdown in China caused the network’s hashrate drop.
Many Chinese miners relocated to Kazakhstan and the network returned stronger than ever, but civil unrest in Kazakhstan earlier this week prompted authorities to shut down internet services nationwide, dropping the network’s hashrate again by approx. at 172 PE / s.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission delayed announcing a verdict on New York Digital Investment Group’s application to approve or reject the creation of a bitcoin ETF spot. A new date has been set for March 16 this year. NYDIG application comes with Bitwise and Grayscale suggestions in CSS dock.
Bitcoin hit another milestone this week. On Wednesday, the market dominance of the world’s number one cryptocurrency fell to 37.28%. The new figure represents the lowest level of dominance in the bitcoin market since 2018.
Also on Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve indicated that it may postpone its decision to raise interest rates until mid – March and halt it. to print currency. Bitcoin lost 6% of its value and the global crypto market cap fell 6% in the 24 hours following the news. Share prices also fell more than 3%.
Ethereum and altcoins did a little better.
While Chainlink is on the rise, other altcoins are deep in the red this week. Ethereum is down 19% from last week and is trading at $ 3,030, although NFT sales are on the rise to start the new year.
On Wednesday, a team of analysts from investment bank JP Morgan said Ethereum could face competitive challenges from rival blockchains like Avalanche, Solana, and Terra in the near future, as all of these blockchains offer more scalable service and fees lower gas than Ethereum.
A report from cryptocurrency investment firm Electric Capital concluded that Polkadot, Avalanche, Solana and Terra all had faster initial growth than Ethereum when it was at a comparable stage in its journey. It should be added that Ethereum is developed in a very different market environment than its competitors.
Solana, Avalanche and Terra are among the biggest losers of the week, having lost more than 20% of their price over seven days. Solana lost 23% in one week and is currently trading at $ 134.50. Both Avalanche and LUNA are down 29% at $ 80.27 and $ 63.69, respectively.
It was a bleak start until 2022 for cryptocurrencies, but the excitement of the cryptocurrency in terms of what lies ahead has not diminished.
