Crypto newsletter: Bitcoin's sideways action continues

• Bitcoin price struggle to break above $37200 resistance
• Mastercard plans to solve Ethereum scalability issues
• Cardano mainnet has marked a significant milestone

Cryptocurrencies traded sideways last week and some weakness can be spotted on Monday. Bitcoin dropped to $37,000 while Ethereum trades near $2,500. Bitcoin is staring at a third straight month of losses as crypto investors remain concerned about global monetary policy tightening which would significantly impact traditional markets, to which Bitcoin and altcoins remain closely correlated. The major cryptocurrency recorded a 20% drop for January. Prices slipped 7% and 19% in November and December, respectively, CoinDesk data shows. Bitcoin's market dominance increased to 41.8%. The capitalization of all digital assets in circulation rose to 1.686 trillion, while an average daily trading volume is registered at $57.288 billion. Meanwhile White House is expected to issue an executive order in the coming weeks that would make government agencies begin conducting risk analysis on cryptocurrency as a national security threat.

BITCOIN:

• According to data from Glassnode, the number of coins that last moved between five and seven years ago has reached an 8-month high which indicates that veteran Bitcoin hodlers are not willing to sell their holdings.

Bitcoin amount of supply last active 5y-7y just reached a 8-month high of 709,715.951 BTC. Source: Glassnode

• Bitcoin exchange reserves decreased in January despite recent price losses which is another bullish signal.

According CryptoQuant, which track 21 major crypto exchange reserves reached lowest since 2018.Source: CryptoQuant

• Despite rising institutional interest, demand for the industry’s flagship Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) continues to move lower.

Last week saw GBTC trade at its biggest ever discount relative to the Bitcoin spot price. Source: Coinglass

• The cryptocurrency market sentiment is currently displaying extreme fear after a prolonged period of sluggish performance and brief break above 25 level.

On Sunday, the Index exited the “extreme fear” zone — a reading between 0 and 25 — for the first time since Jan. 3. Source: Alternative.me

Bitcoin price struggles to break above resistance at $37200 which coincides with 78.6% Fibonacci retracement of the upward wave launched in June 2021. As long as the price sits below, another downward move may be launched towards psychological support at $30000. On the other hand, if buyers manage to break above the aforementioned resistance, the upward move may accelerate towards the next major resistance at $40500. Source: xStation5

Ethereum:

• Mastercard revealed that the company is preparing for the future of cryptocurrencies and payments, and will start supporting certain digital assets directly on its network. 
• CEO of Mastercard stated that the firm aims to increase Ethereum scalability.
• The payment firm partnered with ConsenSys to roll out a new ETH scaling system in Q4.

ETHEREUM price is approaching the lower limit of the triangle formation. Should break lower occur, the next target for sellers is located at $2090. Source: xStation5

Ripple:

• Ripple is on track to go public as it buys back $200 million worth of its series C shares from a lead investor Tetragon Financial Group's. 
• CEO Brad Garlinghouse revealed Ripple's plans to go public once the legal battle with the SEC ends. 

Cardano:

• Cardano launched a new decentralized exchange (DEX) on its network, ADAX.
• The DEX operates on Cardano’s Plutus smart contracts to ensure full decentralization.
• ADAX enables on-chain swap execution and concentrated liquidity orders, allowing it to be a leading competitor in the DEX ecosystem in terms of efficiency and performance. 
• The DEX avoids congestion and concurrency-related issues by splitting each order into smaller unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs).
• Cardano has reached over $70 million in total value locked following the launch of rival DEX SundaeSwap.

CARDANO price broke below the lower limit of the triangle formation, and if current sentiment prevails support at $0.92 may be at risk. Source: xStation5