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News recap: BTC sale before the halving event

Miners began actively selling bitcoins ahead of halving. While the cryptocurrency market is bouncing back, strong resistance lies ahead. Read the News recap to learn about the most important events in the crypto world between 25th January and 8th February.

Crypto market in numbers

The cryptocurrency market cap is on the rise again, up by 10.3% to $1.71 trillion. Positive sentiment is growing in the crypto sphere, driven by ETFs and the upcoming bitcoin halving event.

Trading activity has remained relatively stable. Daily volumes have mainly ranged between $30 to $60 billion between 25th January and 8th February, a slight decline from the peak levels observed in the past two months.

The cryptocurrency fear and greed index has shifted back into the “Greed” zone, increasing by 26.9% from 52 to 66 points. Market sentiment among participants is noticeably more positive.

Cryptocurrency volatility has notably decreased. The 30-day BTC volatility index dropped by 17.6% from 2.15% to 1.77%, while ETH’s saw a 10.4% decrease from 2.68% to 2.40%.

While the cryptocurrency market is bouncing back, there’s a tough road ahead due to strong resistance. Given the still-low volatility levels, expect some sharp movements in the near future. It seems the market has had a decent breather.

Bitcoin ETFs are now seeing net inflows, signalling growing interest every day. The main drivers of price movements in the digital asset market will be expectations of a sharp increase after the bitcoin halving event (which could potentially backfire) and the potential approval of spot ETH-ETFs this spring.

Historically, February has been favourable for cryptocurrencies, with only two instances of the market closing in the red zone. On average, growth exceeds 12%.

Gainers (23rd January – 6th February)

Coin Opening price 23.01, $ Opening price 06.02, $ Change
SUI 1.15 1.61 39.5%
LINK 16.25 20.22 24.4%
PRQ 0.1448 0.1662 14.8%
ZRX 0.3431 0.3799 10.8%
SOL 93.82 101.43 8.1%

Losers (23rd January – 6th February)

Coin Opening price 23.01, $ Opening price 06.02, $ Change
VLX 0.0295 0.0208 -29.4%
ZEC 25.21 22.42 -11.0%
WAVES 2.44 2.17 -11.0%
XLM 0.1247 0.1137 -8.8%
ATOM 10.47 9.72 -7.1%

Easily track gainers and losers within the Simple trade section on EXMO. Check real-time updates in the last 24 hours, week and month.

Most traded coins (23rd January – 6th February)

Coin Trading volumes, $
USDT 29,852,567
BTC 19,464,154
ETH 15,439,936
XRP 4,321,492
UNI 2,813,269
ADA 2,393,363
SOL 1,660,117
LTC 1,111,164
YFI 888,022
GMT 780,037

Top crypto market driving factors

Overall сrypto market

▲ 29.01.2024 – Santiment notes that the combined market cap of the largest stablecoins has grown by 8% over the past four months. Historically, it is a bullish signal for cryptocurrencies.

▲ 30.01.2024 – Nearly 30% of the total USDT in circulation is held on crypto exchanges, marking the highest result in the last ten months.

▲ 01.02.2024 – Tether reported a profit of $2.85 billion in the fourth quarter, setting a new record for excess reserves.

▲ 01.02.2024 – Trading volumes on centralised cryptocurrency exchanges in January 2024 hit an annual maximum of $1.12 trillion.

▼ 05.02.2024 – JPMorgan warns that the growing dominance of Tether is a negative factor for the stablecoin market and the overall crypto ecosystem.

▼ 06.02.2024 – Negative sentiments emerge in crypto blue chips, as prices stagnate following a period of growth, as reported by Santiment.

Bitcoin (BTC)

▼ 26.01.2024 – Net outflows from all spot bitcoin ETFs amounted to $80 million.

▲ 26.01.2024 – Spot bitcoin ETFs surpassed silver ETFs in assets, with $30 billion versus $11 billion, led by BlackRock and Fidelity.

▲ 26.01.2024 – The number of active bitcoin addresses sharply increased, momentarily surpassing 1 million.

▼ 26.01.2024 – Bitcoin saw the fastest decrease in the number of small wallets since October 2023, according to Santiment.

▼ 26.01.2024 – The U.S. announced plans to sell 2,875 confiscated bitcoins (~$115 million).

▼ 26.01.2024 – JPMorgan labelled the inflow figures for bitcoin ETFs as “disappointing,” with net inflows totaling only $857 million in the first nine days of trading.

▼ 31.01.2024 – CryptoQuant noted an increase in bitcoin sales by miners since the beginning of the year.

▲ 05.02.2024 – 83.87% of bitcoins are currently profitable.

▲ 05.02.2024 – Bitcoin mining difficulty reached a new record of 75.5 T.

▼ 05.02.2024 – Since late January, wallets holding balances of 100-1000 bitcoins have been actively selling BTC, according to Santiment.

▲ 05.02.2024 – Since late January, wallets holding balances of 1000-10,000 bitcoins have been actively buying BTC, according to Santiment.

▲ 06.02.2024 – BlackRock increased the number of bitcoins on its balance sheet to 75,702 coins for its spot bitcoin ETF.

▼ 06.02.2024 – Bitcoin miner reserves have decreased to levels not seen since June 2021 (1.82 million BTC) amid the upcoming halving event.

▲ 07.02.2024 – Michael Saylor stated that Microstrategy is now positioning itself as a “bitcoin developer and bitcoin product company” among other things.

▲ 07.02.2024 – Microstrategy purchased an additional 850 bitcoins. The company owns 190,000 bitcoins with a total value of $5.93 billion, with an average purchase price of $31,224.

Ethereum (ETH)

▲ 01.02.2024 – Ethereum developers successfully implemented the Dencun (Deneb-Cancun) hard fork in the second test network of the ecosystem, Sepolia.

▲ 01.02.2024 – The SEC will approve spot ethereum ETFs on 23rd May, by the time that ether’s price will reach $4,000, according to Standard Chartered.

▲ 05.02.2024 – Glassnode reported that almost 510,000 ETH was withdrawn from cryptocurrency exchanges in the last 3 weeks.

▲ 05.02.2024 – According to a CoinShares survey, 75% of respondents believe that ETH has the most attractive growth prospects.

▲ 07.02.2024 – Ethereum developers reported a successful launch of the Dencun update in the Holesky test network.

Ripple (XRP)

▼ 01.02.2024 – Approximately 213 million XRP worth around $112 million was stolen as a result of the Ripple hack.

Solana (SOL)

▲ 26.01.2024 – The Solana network has been running without failures for 336 consecutive days.

▲ 29.01.2024 – Solana intends to double its efforts to attract developers and startups to its ecosystem.

▲ 31.01.2024 – In January, the Solana blockchain processed transactions worth almost $1 trillion.

▲ 01.02.2024 – The number of newly registered addresses on the Solana blockchain in January reached a record 12 million, according to The Block.

▼ 06.02.2024 – At 09:52:45 UTC, the Solana network stopped processing blocks.

▲ 06.02.2024 – The Solana network was rebooted, and new blocks were processed.

Dogecoin (DOGE)

▲ 29.01.2024 – The Dogecoin network saw a record number of active DOGE addresses – 247,240.

▲ 30.01.2024 – There is a significant increase in the number of new addresses on the Dogecoin network, with their number increasing by 1,100% over the last week.

▲ 06.02.2024 – SpaceX accepted payment in DOGE for the DOGE-1 lunar mission.

Chainlink (LINK)

▲ 30.01.2024 – Major Chainlink holders added over 57 million LINK to their balances in the last 30 days.

Sui (SUI)

▲ 31.01.2024 – Sui ended January with a new record token price and locked value volume, with TVL exceeding $430 million.

EXMO.com news

New rates for USDT and USDC in Earn program: double the rewards on your assets in major stablecoins.

That’s all for this week! Follow EXMO.com on TwitterTelegram and Instagram to stay tuned to the main events and trends in the crypto market.

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