After trading at the $21k and $1,600 levels last week and crashing to the $19k and $1,400 range over the weekend, Bitcoin and Ethereum prices are recovering once again. This Tuesday, Bitcoin’s price is up 3%, trading back above $20k, while Ethereum is up 9%, trading at $1,584. With a significant rise in the 24-hour trading volume of 17% for BTC and 35% for ETH, the crypto market is likely to continue its uptrend this week as most digital assets are in the green.
Key Points:
- Jerome Powell’s speech could’ve marked a bottom for BTCUSD
- According to the latest research, over 20% of Vietnam’s population owns Bitcoin, potentially making it the next global crypto hub.
- As Ethereum’s merge approaches, Vitalik reminds users to update their clients before September 6th.
- The largest derivatives platform, CME Group, adds BTC and ETH futures.
- The market sentiment is bullish as the global crypto valuation nears $1 trillion once again.
Bitcoin Market Update
After Jerome Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole conference last week, analysts claim that Bitcoin might have hit bottom, and we’re unlikely to see BTC price trade in the $19k range anytime soon.
Powell said:
“The Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) overarching focus right now is to bring inflation back down to our 2 percent goal. [] Restoring price stability will take some time and requires using our tools forcefully to bring demand and supply into better balance. [] While higher interest rates, slower growth, and softer labor market conditions will bring down inflation, they will also bring some pain to households and businesses. These are the unfortunate costs of reducing inflation.”
Traders reacted sharply to the Fed’s mention of the pain the markets will have to experience to restore price stability and curb inflation. However, it seems that markets are calming this week as traders accept that the Federal Reserve will continue raising interest rates.
In other news, according to triple-a.io’s cryptocurrency adoption data, Vietnam ranks the highest in the percentage of the population which owns Bitcoin, coming in at a whopping 20.27%.
Vietnam could be the next potential global crypto hub as it also ranked second in the world for the “value of retail and all on-chain cryptocurrency transactions, ahead of countries such as USA and China.”
In addition, according to the crypto ownership report from triple-a.io, more than half of Vietnamese (59%) expressed interest in investing in cryptocurrencies, with 31% claiming that they would use crypto for online payments.
Ethereum News
With the merge approaching closer every day, Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s founder, issued a reminder to update all clients before September 6th since the beacon chain hard fork is scheduled for that date.
Reminder: even though the merge is coming around Sep 10-20, the beacon chain hard fork is on Sep 6. Make sure to update your clients before then! https://t.co/x8GQCbtNNk
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) August 30, 2022
The merge is scheduled for September 10th-20th and could create significant bullish momentum for ETHUSD. Ethereum had outperformed Bitcoin over the past several weeks, including today, when ETH gained almost 10% in the past 24 hours.
In other Ethereum news, CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives marketplace, announced their launch of the Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures on Monday. According to the official blog post:
“The launch of these new futures contracts builds on the strong growth and deep liquidity we have seen in our existing U.S. dollar-denominated Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts”
Futures contracts will provide crypto markets with substantial liquidity and could establish the momentum to push BTC and ETH toward new heights. Seeing large platforms like CME Group move forward with adding crypto assets to their platforms is a highly bullish sign, especially during this eight-month-long bear market, which seems to subside as BTC and ETH manage to trade sideways over the past month.
Overall the markets are relatively healthy as the global crypto valuation is once again nearing $1 trillion, currently at $994 billion and up 4.23% in the past 24 hours.
We’ll likely continue to see BTC and ETH recover and attempt to establish support at higher levels throughout this week.
Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.
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