Bitcoin is showing signs of consolidating around the US$27,000 mark once again.
Thursday was a bearish session which saw BTC/USDT dip more than 2% to close slightly above US$26,800, with the pair climbing back to US$26,950 this morning.
Market depth suggests that the pair can hold onto this price point, given the strong basket of buy orders propped up at US$26,800, per Binance’s order book.
Looking across the week, bitcoin was ultimately bullish, adding 2.5% across the seven-day period.
This was helped by a strong boost on Wednesday following signs of optimism among US lawmakers that the impending debt ceiling and potential default can be staved off for now.
But bitcoin is also contending with renewed strength on the greenback, with the US Dollar Index surging 0.7% this week and nearly 1.4% the week prior.
Where next for bitcoin? – Source: currency.com
Other headwinds include a lack of overall liquidity in the market as riskier assets continue to be out of favour among traders.
There does appear to be some optimism among investors though.
Open interest clearly favours long-BTC positions at a ratio of 53.8% to 46.2%, according to data supplied by Coinglass.
As for Ethereum (ETH), open interest is decidedly more neutral, at a ratio of 50.6% to 49.4% long to short.
the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency has performed roughly the same as bitcoin, adding 2.8% over the past seven days.
Yesterday saw the ETH/USDT pair fall back 1.2% to close dead on US$1,800 before inching closer to US$1,810 this morning.
Payment-based altcoins rise
Ripple (XRP) has joined fellow payment-based token Litecoin (LTC) in pulling ahead of the market, though for vastly different reasons.
On the one hand, LTC remains nearly 17% higher week on week due to hype surrounding its upcoming halving event on August 2, which will cut down on circulating supply and drive up scarcity.
XRP has added around 8% for more curious reasons.
Its developer Ripple Laps has announced the launch of the Ripple CBDC Platform, designed as an end-to-end solution for central banks, government and financial institutions seeking to launch their own central bank digital currencies.
The announcement came days after Ripple Labs purchased blockchain-based payment platform Metaco for US$250mln, likely to help with the administration of the CBDC platform.
Ripple Labs’ decision to facilitate a technology that many consider in direct contrast with the decentralised ethos of cryptocurrency is likely to cause heated debate, for it undoubtedly served as a boost for the sixth-largest cryptoasset.
Other strong week-on-week performers in the blue-chip altcoin set included Tron (TRX) adding 3.6%, Dogecoin adding 4.8% and Polygon (MATIC) adding 5.7%.
Global cryptocurrency market capitalisation closed the week 2% higher at US$1.13tn, while total value locked in the decentralised finance space added 0.8% to US$46.85bn.
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