Cryptocurrency market under pressure after new all-time high for ETH
BTC tests critical support level as fundamentals remain at all-time highs
2021.01.12
Today's edition of OKEx Insights' Crypto Market Daily covers Bitcoin, Ethereum, altcoins and DeFi.
Yesterday's bloodbath in the digital asset market has since subsided, but volatility remains high.
The total cryptocurrency market capitalization has declined only by 0.6% over the past 24 hours, but that doesn't exactly paint an accurate picture. While BTC is actually up 1.9% across global exchanges, the foremost cryptocurrency violently bounced from 30,417 USDT to 36,627 USDT in only the span of a few hours. It is currently trading around 33,622 USDT on OKEx.
Altcoins, meanwhile, are seeing mixed results. ETH is down by less than a percent while ADA and XLM are up by 4.7% and 12.9%, respectively.
Bitcoin remains fundamentally stronger than ever
Though an injection of fear has been forced into the cryptocurrency market, the Bitcoin network itself is actually healthier than ever. According to Rafael Schultze-Kraft, CTO of on-chain market analysis firm Glassnode, active addresses, active entities, mining difficulty, hash rate, the number of "whale" addresses, the number of non-zero BTC addresses and the liquid supply of the market leader are all at all-time highs.
Despite these fundamental metrics, the total USD amount of liquidated long positions in BTC futures contracts on Binance also hit an all-time high yesterday, according to Glassnode.
Meanwhile, CME Bitcoin Futures saw almost $5 billion traded — a new record.
DeFi market recovers milestone as SushiSwap sets record
The total value locked in the decentralized finance market recovered the milestone level of $20 billion yesterday after temporarily dropping below it. The metric currently sits at $20.86 billion, while Maker dominance remains under 19%, according to DeFi Pulse.
Synthetix and dYdX are the big winners in the DeFi market over the past 24 hours after seeing TVL increases of 13.62% and 14.30%, respectively. Pickle Finance is the worst performer over the same period after shaving nearly 9% from its TVL.
There hasn't been much noteworthy action, in terms of TVL, for the top three decentralized exchanges. However, SushiSwap did record a new record in terms of volume.
Top altcoin gainers and losers: LMCH surges over 100%
- LMCH/USDT +140.86%
- EM/USDT +38.53%
- CVC/USDT +29.88%
- OM/USDT -9.17%
- PMA/USDT -11.59%
- COVER/USDT -14.55%
The outstanding performer on OKEx today is clearly LMCH, the token of crypto financial platform and crypto bank LATAM Cash. The altcoin is up by 140.86%, as of the time of this writing.
BTC technical analysis: Testing critical support level
The BTCUSDT pair on OKEx is currently testing a critical level of support at 32,300 USDT — a level that it overshot yesterday. Failure to hold this level could see the leading digital asset drop to 27,350 USDT.
The BTC market remains volatile and violent. Many well-known traders are torn on the next moves for the foremost cryptocurrency. This may mean that sitting out is the safest play. Alternatively, investors looking to make long-term purchases may find themselves interested in averaging in.
ETH technical analysis: following BTC's lead
The ETHUSDT pair isn't faring much better than BTCUSDT. In fact, the most recent price action looks almost identical. As such, sitting out or averaging in may be the most attractive option for some market participants.
Not an OKEx trader? Learn how to start trading!
OKEx Insights presents market analyses, in-depth features, original research & curated news from crypto professionals.
