(Kitco News) - The cryptocurrency market limped into the market close on Friday, with prices trending down alongside the major stock market indices as the strength of the dollar remained near a multi-decade high.
A hotter-than-expected Consumer Price Index (CPI) print on Wednesday really took the wind out of the sails of the crypto market, which saw a rally earlier in the week in anticipation of the Ethereum (ETH) Merge, only to be overshadowed by the state of the global economy.
Data from TradingView shows that Bitcoin (BTC) continues to struggle below $20,000, with bulls battling to maintain support at $19,600 in an effort to prevent further losses.
BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
Kitco senior market analyst Jim Wyckoff highlighted Friday’s subdued price action in his morning update, noting that “Price action is quieter, sideways and choppy, with bulls and bears on a level overall near-term technical playing field.”
Aside from the relative calm, there was not much new to report as BTC continues to languish in the range between $17,800 and $25,000.
Ether’s declining momentum
Ether price has struggled to find its footing following the successful Merge and is now poking around support at $1,430, which has been tested twice over the past three months and managed to hold firm.
ETH/USD 1-day chart. Source: TradingView
The lack of momentum and the fact that there are no major developments in the near term that could further support the price of Ether suggest that a retest of support at $1,000 may be in the cards.
If $ETH doesn’t bounce around here it’s over
— Murfski (@Murfski_) September 16, 2022
Low $1000’s incoming
Altcoins take a beating
It was a similar story for the altcoin market, which tends to experience significant weakness and oversized losses during times when Bitcoin price trends down.
Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360
In an interesting twist of irony, the biggest gainers in the market on Friday were all beleaguered projects that contributed to the downfall of the crypto market in 2022. That includes a 26% increase for Terra Classic (LUNC) and an 18% gain for the project’s revamped Terra (LUNA) token. Voyager Digital’s VGX token managed to climb 16% despite the firm’s ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $953 billion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 39.4%.
