BTC’s Fight for $20K, OpenSea and Arbitrum Upgrades, the Merge Closing in: This Week’s Crypto Recap

The past seven days didn’t turn out very well for the broader cryptocurrency market as the total capitalization decreased by roughly $60 billion. It was a week filled with ups and downs, so let’s unpack.

This time seven days ago, Bitcoin was trading slightly below $21K, but things quickly took a turn for the worse. The cryptocurrency decreased to $20K and eventually fall below this critical level on Monday, August 29th. It was then the back and forth started.

On Tuesday, BTC was trading at $20,500 before it also crashed to $19,600. On Wednesday, the price once again shot up towards $20,500, only to drop back o $19,500 the following day. At the time of this writing, the cryptocurrency is trading at around $20,000, charting a slight decline over the past seven days. In any case, this is one o the most characteristic patterns of the bear market where the price goes through this choppy price action, moving sideways without being able to escape the range.

The rest of the market also declined. Altcoins are bleeding out, with Ethereum charting a 4% decline days before the merge. BNB is down 6.6^, XRP is down 5.4%, whereas Solana lost almost 10%. Polygon is one of the outliers and top performers from the leading altcoins, up 8.4% on the week.

MATIC’s increase comes days after the leading non-fungible tokens marketplace, OpenSea, announced support for Polygon on Seaport – its new Web 3 protocol. This integration came with a relatively expanded list of features, which also included the ability for users to pay with MATIC.

Elsewhere, Arbitrum – one of the leading Ethereum scaling solutions, went through a major upgrade. Called Nitro, it’s designed to compile the core of Geth into Arbitrum while also featuring a component rewritten in Go. Additional features include a new prover that allows the network engine to be written using standard tools and languages.

Despite the ongoing declines, the mining difficulty on Bitcoin’s network increased by a whopping 9.26% – the largest increase since the beginning of the year. This is the third adjustment in a row where the difficulty went up, showing that miners are interested, despite the downturn.

As we’re heading into September, it’s particularly interesting to see how the market will shape up, especially with Ethereum’s Merge underway.

Market Data

Market Cap: $1,028B | 24H Vol: $61B | BTC Dominance: 37.3%

BTC: $19,900 (-8.1%) | ETH: $1,594 (-4%) | ADA: $0.456 (-2%)

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss

OpenSea Introduces Polygon Support on Seaport. The leading non-fungible tokens marketplace OpenSea has announced support for Polygon on its Web3 protocol – Seaport. As a result, the price of MATIC trades at an almost 10% increase on the week.

Here’s What You Need to Know About Arbitrum’s Major Upgrade. Arbitrum went through a major upgrade this week. Called Nitro, it compiled the core of Geth into the layer two scaling solution, and it also features a component that’s rewritten in Go. The upgrade makes it easier for users to take advantage of the network’s core elements.

JPMorgan Strategist Advises Investors to Sell Bitcoin, Crypto After Fed’s Hawkish Stance. A strategist from the leading multinational investment bank, JP Morgan, said that the best way to be positioned in the market right now is to focus on valuations and to also avoid looking at short-term directions. He said that it’s reasonable to dispose of risk assets like Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Sees Largest Increase Since January. Bitcoin’s mining difficulty went up by 9.3% this week. This is the largest increase since January 2022. It’s also the third increase in a row. This takes place as the entire market is once again going through a drawdown.

Tether Responds to Supposed Attack in WSJ Report. Tether – the company behind the largest stablecoin by means of total market capitalization (USDT) – has fired back at the Wall Street Journal, refuting many of the claims made in their report. The company also said that they are close to releasing a financial audit.

FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Says No Plans to Acquire Huobi. The CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, denied the rumors that his company is intending to buy Huobi. This comes as a response to multiple reports which were indicating that FTX was considering the acquisition.