Bitcoin and Ethereum See Slow Recovery

After losing nearly 25% of its value in the first three weeks of 2022, Bitcoin witnessed marginal recovery in the last week. The crypto asset has increased by more than 8% during the past 7 days.

The number 2 digital asset by market cap, Ethereum followed a similar recovery trend. ETH spiked by nearly 9% during the mentioned period. In the market correction of December 2021 and January 2022, Ethereum dropped more than Bitcoin. As a result, its market dominance reached 17%, compared to 21% in November 2021.

“Bitcoin began the week trading above $35,000 but fell to nearly $33,000 on Monday. However, since that low point, the crypto asset has begun something of a recovery, with a major rise above $37,000 in late trading on Monday, peaking above $38,000 on Tuesday. The crypto asset has held its value in the range of $37-38,000 since,” Simon Peters, Market Analyst at eToro, said.

“Ether meanwhile had a more volatile journey through the week, reaching lows of under $2,200 on Monday before climbing to above $2,600 on Wednesday. The crypto asset has now settled to trade in a range between $2,500 and $2,600,” Peters added.

BTC’s Network Activity

Due to a plunge in the price of Bitcoin, its network activity, including active BTC addresses, transfer volume and exchange flows have remained volatile in the past few weeks. While short-term BTC investors faced historic losses, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty touched an all-time high in January 2022. After four weeks of consistent outflows, crypto flows turned positive during the third week of 2022 as BTC investment products attracted $14 million worth of institutional inflows.

Earlier this month, the old BTC supply climbed sharply after long-term Bitcoin holders stopped spending. The overall percentage of BTC supply last active almost 5 years ago crossed 23% in January 2022, which is the highest level on record.