Crypto newsletter: Bitcoin continues to wobble

• BTC mining difficulty edge higher despite recent bloodbath
• UberEats enables DOGE payments
• Cardano’s Vasil hard fork launches on testnet
• Vauld and KuCoin may face financial problems

The past week was another negative one for the cryptocurrency market, however sellers failed to break below recent lows. Nevertheless Bitcoin is stuck below psychological resistance at $20.000 as worsening macroeconomic conditions and hawkish rhetoric from major central banks continue to put pressure on prices. Additionally rumors regarding potential financial problems of a crypto lending and exchange platform Vauld and  KuCoin which is the fifth-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world weigh on market sentiment. Today's trading session may be somewhat muted as traders from the US are off for holiday. According to CoinMarketCap, the total capitalization of the crypto market dropped last week 9% to $865bn. Bitcoin's dominance index fell to 42.2%,while an average daily trading volume is registered at $ 39.83 billion. The cryptocurrency Fear & Greed index rose slightly to 14 points.

Index rose slightly on Monday, nevertheless still remain in "extreme fear" territory. Source: Alternative.me

Bitcoin:

• Despite recent sell-off mining difficulty continues to move higher and is not planning to reduce at the upcoming readjustment this week. According to BTC.com research, difficulty may even rise if  prices remain at current levels, adding 0.5% to what is a metric still near all-time highs.

Bitcoin's difficulty overview. Source: BTC.com

• CEO of asset manager Capriole Charles Edwards established production cost for miners at around $26,000. From this sum, $16,000 accounts for electricity, meaning that miner overheads directly influence their ability to limit losses in the current environment. “We traded below Electrical Cost in June, however the floor has since dropped as inefficient miners capitulate,” Edwards noted.
• According to Glassnode, the number of coins being spent at a loss reached a level not seen since July 2020. On-chain analytics firm focused on the weekly moving average of unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) in a loss.

The number of bitcoins being spent at a loss is now the highest since mid-2020. Source: Glassnode

• Bitcoin transaction fees, which rose sharply during the last rally, dropped to lowest level since July 2020. 

The median fee currently stands at $1.15. Source: Glassnode

• Meanwhile CryptoQuant revealed that the Whale Ratio metric, which measures the selling pressure of large wallet investors, indicates that  Bitcoin price may reach bottom soon.
• Tesla (TSLA.US) is facing a $440 million loss of its Bitcoin holdings after the recent crypto market bloodbath; however, this sum could increase if the current sentiment persists. 
• Michael Bury, who predicted the 2007 mortgage crisis, believes that we are only in the middle of a bearish cycle for BTC and equities.
• Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, called the current collapse of the crypto market a good time to buy bitcoin for the long term. In his opinion if traders can hold out in the current bear market, their investments will multiply in the next bullish trend.
• Vauld, a crypto lending and exchange platform, has halted all its operations, including trading, deposits and withdrawals. The company has hired advisors to help with the challenges of a potential restructuring.
• Bank of America announced that the number of clients investing in cryptocurrencies has dropped by more than 50% since November 2021.
• The European Union has finalized its Markets in Crypto Assets regulation, to trace and identify crypto transfers. Under new regulations service providers are now obligated entities under anti-money laundering directive, including ATMs and transactions from and to the Euro. 

Bitcoin fell over 9.0% last week, after buyers failed to break above 200 SMA (red line) which acts as the short-term resistance. If current sentiment prevails, downward move may accelerate towards local support around $17770 which is marked with 78.6% Fibonacci retracement of the upward wave launched in March 2020. Should break lower occur, the next target for sellers is located around $12700 and is marked with a lower limit of the 1:1 structure. Source: xStation5

Dogecoin:

• Two of the most popular food delivery services - Door Dash and Uber Eats enable their customers to pay for orders via Dogecoin and Shiba Inu gift cards, which is improving coins fundamental picture.

DOGECOIN is testing a major resistance area around $0.0670, which coincides with 38.25 Fibonacci retracement of the last upward wave and two SMAs. Should a break higher occur, the next target for buyers can be found at 0.0715. On the other hand, if sellers manage to halt declines another downward impulse towards recent lows at $0.0487 may be launched. Source: xStation5

Cardano:

• The IOHK team announced  the successful launch of the Vasil  hard fork on the testnet and for the next four weeks developers will be looking for potential bugs. During this time, IOHK plans to closely collaborate with the dApp developers, Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) and other members of the community.

CARDANO price has been moving sideways in recent weeks. Currently Ethereum-killer is testing 50 SMA (green line) around $0.4680. Should break higher occur, upward impulse may accelerate towards the upper limit of the consolidation zone at $0.5300. However, if bears manage to regain control, then support at $0.4350 may be at risk. Source: xStation5