Bitcoin Taps $78K Ahead of Big Week, NEAR Dumps 6% Again: Market Watch

The broader market has remained untypically calm for a Monday morning but more volatility is expected as the week progresses.

Bitcoin added over $2,000 since its multi-week low on Friday following the Binance hack, and currently fights to reclaim the $78,000 level.

While ETH has neared $2,300 and TRX is up by 1.7% daily, most other large- and mid-cap alts are in the red today, led by NEAR’s substantial 6% decline.

BTC Taps $78K

The primary cryptocurrency spent most of the previous week trading sideways in a relatively tight range between $82,000 and $79,000. The lower boundary managed to hold the bears off for days, while the upper was challenged a few times, until Wednesday. As markets prepared for the key FOMC meeting, BTC went close to $82,000 on a couple of occasions but ultimately failed.

Once the Federal Reserve announced that there would be no rate change this time, BTC jumped again and neared $82,000 for the third time in two days. However, another rejection followed, and the asset quickly returned to $81,000.

Then came Friday morning and the devastating Binance hack in which the exchange lost $6.3 billion. The shockwaves sent through the crypto market were immediate, and bitcoin tanked to $76,400 within minutes. Although it bounced back by $2,000 immediately, the bearish sentiment prevailed, and the asset slipped to a six-week low of $76,100 later that day, alongside most other financial markets.

It used the weekend to recover gradually and now sits just above $78,000. Its market cap is up to $1.570 trillion, while its dominance over the alts continues to be just under 60% on CMC. More volatility is anticipated later this week due to these key macro events.

NEAR Plunges Again

Ethereum has neared $2,300 once again, while BNB is above $710. XRP fights for the $1.25 support, while TRX has recovered slightly from the weekend losses.

In contrast, NEAR leads the red team today with a massive 6.3% decline to $4.13. Almost all other large- and mid-cap alts are on its team, with HYPE dipping by 1% and BCH dropping by over 2%. TAO, ENA, AAVE, AVAX, PUMP, and MORPHO have declined even harder.

Nevertheless, the total crypto market cap has remained relatively stable at $2.610 trillion on CMC.