Both bitcoin and Ethereum decreased by double digits over the weekend because the past week was quite bleak for most cryptocurrencies as we reported in our altcoin news.
Now, both Bitcoin and Ethereum struggle to fend off the ongoing bear market. With the uncertain macro environment, most of the coins have been left out in the dumps. Bitcoin is down by 10% over the past week after hitting a local high of $44,600 and since then, the leading cryptocurrency trended downwards and it is now trading around $38,800. Ethereum as the second biggest crypto hasn’t fared much better either. ETH dropped by 12% in the same period and it is now battling to stay above $2500 which is a psychologically important price point for the asset. Just like bitcoin, the start of the month was bullish and ETH even touched $3000 on multiple occasions.
At press time, BTC is trading near $38,850 and ETH is trading at $2576 according to the data from coinmarketcap. Both of the assets are down by 45% from their highs set back in November. Of the top 10 cryptocurrencies, only a few have escaped the past week’s bearish turmoil. Terra behind the LUNA token and its popular USTÂ stable coin is down by 9.5%.
Solana and Cardano also dropped by 12% and 15% respectively. Avalanche is down by 14.8% and the dog-themed coins are all down by 10%. Since the start of March, the entire crypto market dropped by $222 billion and fell from $2 trillion to $1.74 trillion. The biggest headwinds that pin both BTC and ETH down revolve around the ongoing war in Ukraine. Though both assets prove to be useful for donations to the Ukrainian governemnt, their close correlation to the traditional markets stopped their growth.
Following the invasion of Ukraine, CoinMetrics showed that the correlation between BTC And the S&P500 dropped dramatically. However, the correlation rebounded slightly and indicated that the two markets are getting in closer in lockstep. When examining the price performance for other stocks, the close relationship to crypto means more pains for BTC. The three leading indices are all down by 2-3%.
The past week was quite bearish for the number one cryptocurrency after the asset failed to surpass $45,000 and in the days that followed, BTC was losing value before it dropped below $40,000 on Friday.
