Market picture

Bitcoin has declined 12.2% in the past seven days, trading at $21,500. Ethereum has lost 17.8%, down to $1560. Other leading altcoins from the top 10 have fallen from 7.8% (BNB) to 22% (Solana).

The total capitalisation of the crypto market, according to CoinMarketCap, dipped below $1 trillion over the weekend, losing $150 billion over the week. Near this level, the crypto market lingered in mid-year and early 2021.

Bitcoin's inability to develop growth above $25K showed that in the previous two months, we had only seen a rebound in a falling market, but not the start of a rapid recovery. BTC is showing negative technical signals, having fallen below its 200-week moving average, now passing around $23K.

Most of Bitcoin's decline came on Friday, and its catalyst may have been a drop in stock indices. After four weeks of gains, the S&P 500 began a correction, with its biggest fall in almost two months.

Pressure on risky assets came from the minutes of the US Federal Reserve's July meeting published on Wednesday, which showed the regulator's determination to fight inflation. Having broken the upward channel support, BTCUSD is now stomping around $21K, where the price direction has reversed four times in the past four months.

News background

The recent announcement by the US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee that lawmakers are "deeply concerned" about the popularity of Proof-of-Work cryptocurrency mining may have affected the negative market dynamics. The members of Congress requested four mining companies to provide data on the environmental impact of their activities.

The European Central Bank (ECB) outlined its plan to license cryptocurrency activities and create a regulatory framework governing the industry in the EU.

On 12 September, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) will launch options on Ethereum futures ahead of The Merge. This will happen after regulators approve the initiative.

Finally, the Accounting firm BDO Italia has provided an opinion on the adequacy of Tether Holdings' reserves to collateralise the USDT stablecoin fully.