Crypto Market Cap falls below $1 Trillion, Bitcoin Price above $20,000, Ethereum witnessed downfall of 6% as MERGE goes live within 24 hours!

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Top crypto tokens by market cap – Bitcoin price is down about 9% trading over $20,400, Ethereum price close to $1610, down about 6.3%
2. Global crypto market cap down about 6.8% in past 24 hours, currently at about $994 billion
3. Top crypto news – EthereumPoW plans to launch hard fork 24 hours after the Ethereum Merge, MakerDAO users can now mint DAI stablecoin for free, Norwegian central bank releases open source code for its CBDC sandbox.

CRYPTO MARKET TODAY AT A GLANCE

GLOBAL CRYPTO MARKET OVERVIEW

Total Crypto Market Cap | Source: Tradingview

Early in the week, the market had begun recovering strongly, especially end of last week when the market rally was led by Bitcoin’s stellar price hike. But all of that progress was wiped out in one fell swoop over the past couple of hours amid US stock trading hours. The crypto market’s fall came in line with US equity indices crashing over the trading session as the US Labour Department’s consumer price index (CPI) report yesterday indicated that the monthly CPI had increased to an annual pace of 8.3%, more than the median estimate of 8.1%. This aggravated the fears of a  rate hike that could come in around 75 basis point or even more from the Federal Reserve next week.

Cryptos have been moving more and more like other investment classes, especially US equities and the tech-focused index, namely Nasdaq. From a technical point of view, the overall crypto price fell nearly 7% in the past 24 hours, falling straight back to the crucial trendline support (marked in orange). It has lost the support of the 50 day moving average too, with the Relative Strength Index dropping down back to sub-50 levels. Thus unless we see some recovery in crypto prices, today or maybe tomorrow after the highly anticipated Ethereum Merge which is going to happen early tomorrow, we could see some price correction.

TOTAL VOLUME IN DEFI

According to data from CoinMarketCap, the total volume in DeFi is currently $7.44 billion, 7.47% of the total crypto market 24-hour volume. The volume of all stable coins is now $92.82 billion, which is 93.28% of the total crypto market 24-hour volume.

And, according to DeFiLlama, the total-value-locked in DeFi as of writing this stands around $56.6 billion, down about 4.8% in the past 24-hours.

TOP CRYPTOS TODAY BY MARKET CAP

BTC/USD | Source: Tradingview

Pretty much like the overall crypto market, Bitcoin too has erased most of the gains it had managed to make over the past week and a half. Bitcoin had been leading the rally, since the end of last week, which was clearly depicted by a recovery in its market cap dominance. But the recent fall in the past 24 hours thanks to the FUD around rise in CPI and the eventual rate hikes from the Federal Reserve next week, Bitcoin price managed to lose over 10% at its lows before recovering slightly.

However, from a technical point of view, BTC price is still well above its trendline support (marked in black), which also happens to be the lowest points of 2022 for BTC price. But other than that, things seem quite bearish for the king coin. It is trading well below the 50 day moving average and its nearest trendline resistance, which it had managed to breach just yesterday. And with the Relative Strength Index currently running below 50, we may see some added selling pressures coming in.

Additional Read: Bitcoin Price Prediction

ETH/USD | Source: Tradingview

Thanks to the Bitcoin led rally that happened last week, Ethereum price had managed to recover along with it and break out of the bearish descending triangle pattern on the charts (marked in blue). However, this latest fall over the scalding hot CPI data this week had brought ETH price back onto diagonal trendline. Currently, Ethereum price is still outside the descending triangle and is showing some signs of recovery right after the fall too. So with the Ethereum Merge set to take place is less than 24 hours now, we could see some recovery from there. However, investors are advised to do their own research before falling in for the hype around the Merge.

From a technical standpoint, ETH price has fallen below the 50 day moving average again, but only marginally. A small hike from current levels would be enough to push prices back up above the 50-DMA and eventually continue its journey towards the golden crossover, which seems pretty close at hand now. It had also broken into the accumulation zone (marked in grey) but couldn't sustain within it. The next rally in Ethereum could potentially push ETH price farther into that zone and form a new support zone for the altcoin king.

Additional Read: Ethereum Technical Analysis 

OTHER ALTCOINS

CARDANO (ADA)

Cardano (ADA) price lost about 5.6% in the past 24-hours and is currently trading at around $0.47 - with a current market cap of $16.1 billion as of writing.

SOLANA (SOL)

Solana (SOL) price lost about 12.4% in the past 24-hours and is currently trading at around $33.7 - with a current market cap of $11.8 billion as of writing.

DOGECOIN (DOGE)

Dogecoin (DOGE) price lost about 4.5% in the past 24-hours and is currently trading at around $0.06075 - with a current market cap of $8 billion as of writing.

AVALANCHE (AVAX)

Avalanche (AVAX) price lost about 10.2% in the past 24-hours and is currently trading at around $19.2 - with a current market cap of $5.6 billion as of writing.

ETHEREUM CLASSIC (ETC)

Ethereum Classic (ETC) price lost about 2.3% in the past 24-hours and is currently trading at around $37.3 - with a current market cap of $5 billion as of writing.

TOP CRYPTO NEWS TODAY

1. ETHEREUM FORK ETHEREUMPOW ANNOUNCES POST MERGE LAUNCH PLANS

Despite having seen a major fall in price of ETHW ahead of the Ethereum Merge, the team working behind EthereumPoW (ETHW), a proof-of-work faction in the main Ethereum blockchain has finally announced its plans to launch its hard fork exactly 24 hours after the Ethereum Merge which is expected to take place early tomorrow, on 15th September, 2022. This is being done to retain the profitability of the mining business on the Ethereum chain.

ETHW mainnet will happen within 24 hours after the Merge. The exact time will be announced 1 hour before launch with a countdown timer and everything including final code, binaries, config files, nodes info, RPC, explorer, etc. will be made public when the time’s up.

2/n

— EthereumPoW (ETHW) Official (@EthereumPoW) September 12, 2022

2. MAKERDAO USERS CAN NOW MINT DAI FOR FREE

Users who work with the MakerDAO, the organisation behind the DAI stablecoin, will now be able to mint the stablecoin for free. This was made possible after an executive vote increased the debt ceiling for its stETH vault to 200 million DAI. This was done with the expectation that the higher debt ceiling will minimize its dependency on support from centralised collateral assets. So now MakerDao Governance has reduced the stability fee for the Wrapped stETH vault to 0%, which means one can mint DAI for free without paying any fees.

Free Dai minting?

There is only one volatile-collateral vault type with a 0% Stability Fee — WSTETH-B

The latest Executive Vote raised its Debt Ceiling to 200 million Dai, and the Dai minted from this vault type is on its way to filling the available debt, again.

↓ pic.twitter.com/zfLbEpDuTk

— Maker (@MakerDAO) September 12, 2022

3. NORWEGIAN CENTRAL BANK RESORTS TO ETHEREUM TO BUILD NATIONAL DIGITAL CURRENCY

The central bank of Norway has managed to achieve a new milestone in its digital currency efforts, and has released open source code for the country's central bank digital currency (CBDC) sandbox. Currently available on GitHub, the sandbox is designed to offer an interface for interacting in the test environment and enable multiple functionalities.

TOP CRYPTO GAINERS TODAY

TOP CRYPTO LOSERS TODAY

Prices as of 14th September, 2022.