Ethereum Ecosystem Gains Momentum as Crypto Market Cap Re-ascends $1 Trillion
Lots of action in markets this week as they reacted to the reality of Ethereum’s upcoming Merge. Coins in the ETH ecosystem saw significant gains and Ethereum Classic jumped over 75% as miners considered their options. Finland announced it would donate $48 million in drug seizure money to Ukraine.
Contents
- The Ethereum ecosystem soars in anticipation of the Merge
- BYAC offers first glimpse into the Otherside Metaverse
- The Eurozone’s biggest bank to offer crypto custody
- Minecraft says “No thanks” to NFTs
Top Market Trends:
- 21Shares rolled out two new Exchange Traded Products (ETPs); S&P risk-controlled indices for Bitcoin and Ether.
- Square Enix joined Enjin to create Polkadot-based Final Fantasy NFTs, which will be paired with physical cards and toys, set for release in 2023.
- BNP Paribas, the Eurozone’s largest bank, is entering the crypto custody space through a partnership with METACO.
- Minecraft announced that NFTs and blockchain gaming assets directly conflict with their Guidelines and values of creative inclusion.
ETH pumping so hard Celsius might become solvent again.
— Alex Svanevik🐧 (@ASvanevik) July 18, 2022
Movers and Shakers
Top 7-day Gainers:
Top 7-day Losers:
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Technical Summary
Bitcoin Pulse
Bitcoin (BTC) reached a most welcome 5-week high despite the news of Elon Musk selling $930 million in BTC to shore up Tesla’s cash reserves. Analysts debate whether we’ve reached the bottom of the bear market and BTC is looking to reclaim its 200w MA after 5 weekly closes below it.
- Bitcoin staged a major breakout of the $22.5k resistance level.
- The descending resistance had been holding since early April.
- Daily RSI breached 50 and is now following an ascending support line.
Short-term BTC TA
For over a month now, Bitcoin's price has been moving in a channel:

Within this channel, we see a rising wedge. If the markets remain within the wedge and the channel, we could see some crucial price movements early next week.
Long-term BTC TA
Right now, Bitcoin's weekly Candle is trying to push through the 200 MA:

That means price action right now could be fake-bullish. To strengthen the bullish narrative, we should have a weekly candle close above the 200 MA.
Altcoins on the Move
Altcoin markets were hopping this week with a Merge-inspired new interest in Ethereum Classic (ETC), as miners weighed their options with the upcoming switch from Ethereum PoW mining to PoS. Twenty of the top 100 altcoins gained by 20% or more, led by ETC, ETH, sTETH, MATIC, FTM, and AVAX.
- The Ethereum community and markets responded favorably to Vitalik Buterin’s exciting description of post-Merge developments, which he called “the surge, the verge, the purge, and a splurge” while at this week’s Paris Ethereum Conference.
- ETH broke out of the $1600 resistance line and now is trying to establish its support level there.
- ApeCoin rose 22% after BYAC launched demos for their first Otherside Metaverse event.
NEW: 4000+ @OthersideMeta holders have participated in the first trip to the Otherside
— Blockworks (@Blockworks_) July 16, 2022
Via @themetav3rse pic.twitter.com/xQfALzkYNR
Altcoin TA
Solana (SOL) is showing solid signs of a Bear Flag having been formed:

So the next 24 hours may offer a good shorting opportunity for Solana.
Newsworthy:
- Luana Pinheiro became the first Latin American athlete to receive her paycheck in Bitcoin.
- In crypto regs: South Korean officials postponed crypto taxation until 2025 and raided 15 companies linked to Terra. The UK introduced a bill to regulate stablecoins as payments and international regulators met at the MiCa forum to discuss stablecoins and CBDCs.
- Finland liquidated $48 million in Bitcoin seized in drug-related transactions and plans to donate the proceeds to Ukraine.
- Coinbase former product manager sued by SEC for insider trading for telling his brother and a friend about coins to be released on Coinbase, netting $1.1 million over a year.
Found an ETH address that bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of tokens exclusively featured in the Coinbase Asset Listing post about 24 hours before it was published, rofl pic.twitter.com/5QlVTjl0Jp
— Cobie (@cobie) April 12, 2022
Spotlight on: XRP
The XRP founding team wanted a "less wasteful" solution than Bitcoin and back in 2011, that is exactly what they set out to create. Today, XRP is something quite different and has a lot of controversial baggage to boot. But, one can't deny that XRP has been a top 10 coin by market cap and daily volume for years.

Read our comprehensive XRP Coin Profile
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We Looked Into: A Review of the Leading Bitcoin Narratives
Since 2020, one of the mainstream narratives for Bitcoin has been that "it's a hedge against inflation" 📈
— Quadency (@quadency) July 20, 2022
Note: many people saw that way before, though. https://t.co/F3SWmCNRaH
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Disclaimer: The content of this article is for general market education and commentary and is not intended to serve as financial, investment, or any other type of advice.