Ether and crypto market extend weekend gains as Bitcoin prices rise again beyond $17,000

By Selena On Jan 9, 2023

In only 24 hours, Bitcoin price rose 1% to $17,117, breaking the $17,000 barrier for the first time since late December, and the price is up 2.9% week-over-week. 1.9% higher to $1,287, ether saw a 7.3% weekly increase. At the time of writing, BTC is changing hands at $17,185.

BTC/USD 4-hour chart | Source: TradingView

Today, Cardano and BNB had the biggest price changes among the top 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, although Bitcoin and Ether also increased. Following a Wall Street surge last Friday, prompted by the most recent U.S. jobs data reported, many cryptocurrencies have seen gains over the following few days.

📊 There are two ways of looking at #crypto‘s 2.5 year low level of trading volume:

😏 Less resistance & sell walls, leading to whales pumping prices easily
😬 Utility is limited with less order book activity, which could cap long-term #bullrun potentialhttps://t.co/mD0NRAWNso pic.twitter.com/d0rJS8hocX

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) January 8, 2023

Cardano increased 7.3% to trade at $0.29, an increase of 18.8% over the previous week. This price surge coincides with ADA’s first-ever inclusion in the top 10 most widely used cryptocurrencies for payments. ADA is the native cryptocurrency of the Cardano network. BNB increased 5.3% to $274.77, gaining 12.5% in the previous seven days. The MATIC share of Polygon increased 4.1% to trade at $0.84, increasing its weekly gains to 10.5%.

The entire market value of all cryptocurrencies was $830.4 billion, up 0.8% from the previous day, while the total trading volume was $20.4 billion, up 14.7%. While non-farm payrolls increased by 223,000 jobs in December, exceeding forecasts, figures from the U.S. Labor Department released on Friday also revealed that salaries increased by only 0.3% in December rather than the 0.4% forecast.

According to the Institute for Supply Management, which reported on Friday that its Purchasing Manager Index dropped to 49.6 in December from November’s 56.5, U.S. services activity shrank for the first time in 2.5 years. This index’s reading below 50 indicates a downturn in the industry.

Investors are looking for indications that the U.S. Federal Reserve’s months-long campaign of interest rate increases is having the desired effect of bringing down the nation’s high inflation rate. The Federal Reserve increased interest rates in December by 50 basis points, making benchmark rates between 4.25% and 4.5%, the highest level in 15 years. On Thursday, January 12, the new U.S. Consumer Price Index data, a crucial inflation indicator, will be made public.

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