After a bullish session yesterday, the larger crypto market is looking steady at the moment. However, that may not last as the market is expected to be choppy today. The much anticipated Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech is likely to set the tone for the day. The speech is expected to bring clarity on the pace of interest rate hikes and the global liquidity situation.
Bitcoin (BTC) failed to touch $22,000 for the sixth consecutive session so far. Having announced that the Merge process will begin on 6 September, Ethereum (ETH) crossed the $1,704 level briefly before ending yesterday’s session. Other key cryptos too ended the day in positive territory. Aave (AAVE) rose by 6.12%, and Shiba Inu Coin (SHIB) and yearn.finance (YFI) are up by 5.51% and 4.69%, respectively.
The total crypto market cap is drifting near the psychologically important $1 trillion level. The total crypto market cap is down by $40 billion this August.
The Fear and Greed Index
Today, the Fear and Greed Index, which represents the predominant current crypto markert sentiment, rose from 25/100 to touch 27/100. With this, the Index moves out of the extreme fear zone, but it is too soon to tell whether the market is completely out of the danger zone, especially given the Fed Chair’s upcoming speech. It would be ideal if, for the overall hygiene of the market, especially Bitcoin, the Index can recapture the 40/100 level.
Top gainers and losers
CoinSwitch data reveals that Theta Fuel (TFUEL) leads the way up with a 24.93% increase, while Chromia (CHR) and Storj (STORJ) are up by 10.59% and 6.73%, respectively.
At the other end of the spectrum we have iExec RLC (RLC) leading the way down, after sliding by 7.59%. It is joined at the lower end by NKN (NKN) and AirSwap (AST), which have lost 5.63% and 5.50%, respectively.
