Market Wrap: What happened with the top five cryptocurrencies this week? (10-Dec-2021 to 17-Dec-2021)

It’s been another bearish week for the top 5, currently all sit in the red, with most hitting their lows for the week early this morning, Sydney time.

There is still uncertainty in the market over the COVID-19 Omicron variant, and the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to hike interest rates three times next year will certainly be felt across the global marketplace, including crypto.

The Fed will raise interest rates next year to increase the cost of borrowing money, therefore aiming to slow down inflation. The rate hike will affect consumer spending as the interest rate on loans for purchases like houses or cars will increase, which in turn will deter spending, thereby lowering inflation.

Julia Coronado, an economist at the University of Texas at Austin, during an interview with PBS on Wednesday, December 15, said that “we have seen a lot of you might call it froth in areas like cryptocurrencies. And that sort of enthusiasm may see some cooling as the Fed stops injecting liquidity into financial markets.”

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index, which analyses emotions and sentiments in the crypto market, seems to correlate to what Coronado is saying. It was sitting at 29 at the time of writing, slightly within “Fear” territory.

Let’s take a look at the highs and lows for the week.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin hit this week’s low of US$46,580 on Wednesday, December 15, the week’s high of US$50,473 came 2 days earlier on Monday the 13th.

Ethereum

Ethereum started on Saturday 11th on a high of US$4,219 and has been mostly stable around the US$4,000 mark this week, but did hit a low of US$3,702 on Dec 16.

Binance Coin

Binance Coin has steadily fallen this week, starting at US$595 on Saturday, then falling to the week’s low of US$507 on Thursday.

It’s since recovered slightly and at the time of writing is hovering around the US$540 mark.

Solana

Solana has seen a small swing this week, starting the week around US$180, before falling to the week’s low of US$151 on Tuesday. Since then, it’s increased back up over the US$180 mark to hit the week’s high of US$186 early this morning, Sydney time.

Cardano

Cardano has been mostly stable around the US$1.30 mark this week, seeing a low swing to US$1.21 on Saturday the 11th, before pushing to a high this week US$1.39 a few hours later.