JPEX’s Weekly Review of the Best Performing Cryptocurrencies (July 11 to 15)
The cryptocurrency industry continued to make several attempts to retest the $1 trillion milestone in overall market capitalization in the second week of July (11th to 15th). Despite the increasing trading volume buoyed by renewed interests in digital assets by some individual whales and institutional investors, Bitcoin could not break out from its current region of $20,000.
Others such as Ethereum (ETH), Polygon (MATIC), Uniswap (UNI), and the Terra Classic (LUNC) made gains within the course of the week.
The cryptocurrencies are briefly reviewed below.
Ethereum (ETH)
As one of the most demanded cryptocurrencies in the space, Ether soared by 9% within the week. After opening the week at $1,168.14 on Monday, July 11, ETH reached an intraday high of $1,169.19, tested an intraday low of $1,095, and closed the day with a trading price of $1,097.24. The trading volume for the day was around $12.06 billion and the market value was in the region of $133.32 billion, per data from CoinMarketCap.
Much of the gains were attributed to the successful testing of the latest Shadow Fork En Route to the Merge on Friday, July 15. The merge is expected to happen in September which will finally see Ethereum move from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) network which depends on mining to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS).
This will eradicate the environmental concerns associated with the current network and make it more scalable which will in turn lead to a significant decrease in gas fees (transaction costs or fees).
On Friday, July 15, ETH opened at $1,191.53, reached an intraday high of $1,275.78, tested an intraday low of $1,182.90, and was exchanging hands for $1,235.82, as of writing.
The trading volume was approximately $17.45 billion and the market capitalization was $150.23 billion.
Overall, there was a 44% and 12% increase in the trading volume and market value of ETH respectively.
Source: ETH/USD Chart by TradingView
The latest update has resonated well with analysts at Digital Coin Price. According to them, Ethereum could command an average trading price of $1,626.57, the least possible trading price of $1,521.57, and the best possible trading price of $1,732.76 by the end of 2022.
Polygon (MATIC)
MATIC, the native asset of the Polygon ecosystem remains one of the best medium-cap digital assets you could have on your portfolio.
The coin was among the biggest gainers within the week. MATIC spiked by 27% and most of the drive was attributed to the protocol named by Walt Disney as part of their business development program.
MATIC opened on Monday, July 11, with a trading price of $0.5712, hit an intraday high of $0.5964, traded for an intraday low of $0.539, and eventually closed the day at $0.5635. The trading volume was around $598.86 million and the coin had a market value of $4.51 billion.
On Thursday, July 14, Polygon was selected by the multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate as part of its 2022 Accelerator Program.
The purpose of this program is to build artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and augmented reality (AR).
Aside from Polygon, companies selected for the program included Flickplay, Inworld, Lockerverse, Obsess, and Red 6. This is a huge boost to the Polygon project since it was the only blockchain platform named on the program.
On the day of the announcement, MATIC opened at $0.6362, spiked by 11% to a day high of $0.7117, and due to short selling dipped by 13% to a day low of $0.6164. Eventually, MATIC closed the day at $0.7076, trading volume increased to more than $1.5 billion, and market capitalization was $5.67 billion.
As of writing, MATIC was exchanging hands for $0.73.
Overall, during the week, trading volume rose by 160%, and market capitalization was also up by 25%.
Source: MATIC/USD Chart by TradingView
Analysts at Changelly believe the new alliance with Disney and many partnerships in the short term could see MATIC reach a regular trading price of $0.77, the lowest possible trading price of $0.75, and the highest possible price of $0.86 by the close of 2022.
UNISWAP (UNI)
UNI remains one of the must-have tokens despite the bearish trends of the market. UNI soared by 14% within the week due to the triggering of one of the primary drivers of cryptocurrencies.
Per analysts, experts, and gurus, staking, adoption by a mainstream company, and exchange listings drive the price of digital assets to new high highs.
The same was held for UNI during the week. UNI opened on Monday, July 11 with a trading price of $6.26, reached an intraday high of $6.27, fell to an intraday low of $5.31, and closed the day at $5.57. The trading volume for the day was $239.07 million and this corresponded to a market cap of around $4.09 billion.
After going through several corrections, the announcement by Robinhood (one of the biggest exchanges by trading volume) that it has finally added UNI to tradable tokens on the platform saw a substantial rise in the token on Thursday, July 14.
On that day, UNI opened at $6.12, increased by 15% to an intraday high of $7.05, and saw a sharp decline of 14% to $6.05 due to profit taking by day traders. The token eventually closed the day at an improved price of $6.99.
There was huge investor interest which was reflected in the $444.89 volume which increased the market value of MATIC to $5.13 billion.
Overall, the trading volume and market capitalization of MATIC soared by 86% and 25% respectively.
Source: UNI/USD Chart by TradingView
Analyst David Cox at CryptoNewsZ foresees UNI retesting old prices in the short term. According to him, UNI could reach a normal trading price of $13.5, a minimum trading price of $12, and a maximum trading price of $15 by the end of 2022.
Bitcoin shed 0.09% of its price for the week, and Terra Classic (LUNC) increased by more than 20% within 24 hours on Friday, July 15.
Overall, the total market capitalization of the industry stood at $931.05 billion.
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