During the week, the cryptocurrency market sharply corrected downwards, and almost all leading digital assets, except stablecoins, lost their positions: BTC is currently trading around 26400.00 (–10.2%), ETH is at 1680.00 (–9.2%), USDT at 1.0002 ( 0.1%), and BNB at 219.0 (–8.7%). The USDC stablecoin has returned to the fifth place by capitalization and now it is holding around 1.0003 ( 0.1%), while XRP has fallen to the sixth position. The total market capitalization decreased to 1.063B dollars, and the share of BTC adjusted to 48.38%.

The digital asset market was under significant pressure after the publication of the minutes of the last meeting of the US Federal Reserve. The most rapid downward dynamics developed on Thursday and Friday but experts do not agree on its reasons. According to the document, US regulator officials remained concerned about high inflation rates and said that in the future, interest rate adjustments may be required if economic conditions do not change. The likelihood of a new tightening of monetary stimulus puts pressure on alternative assets, including digital ones but it did not act as a catalyst for a serious fall in prices, which has continued to this day. There are several opinions in the expert community about the large sale of the first cryptocurrency by one of the “whales”: from a significant increase in the yield of American bonds to fears of devaluation of the yuan by the Chinese authorities to support the national economy but the most likely reason is the yesterday’s publication of The Wall Street Journal with an analysis of the financial space technology manufacturer SpaceX. Journalists claim that the company could sell all of its BTC assets acquired in 2021 and 2022, for a total value of 373.0M dollars. The Wall Street Journal did not confirm this information but, as experts note, it was not required to increase pressure. The digital asset market is still influenced by big names, so the news that Elon Musk’s company got rid of its cryptocurrency could well cause cascading sales.

Among other news of the week, it is worth noting the statement of the management of the American debit payment system PayPal Holdings Inc. on the launch of its own Cryptocurrencies Hub service, which will allow customers to store, sell, and buy coins, provide conversion between PYUSD and other digital assets, and also make it easier for them to pay for purchases through the PayPal system. Meanwhile, experts from the largest US bank, Bank of America Corp., were skeptical about the initiatives of the payment giant. In their opinion, the launch of PYUSD can improve the quality of customer experience but its distribution in the long term will not be massive due to serious competition from central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and profitable stablecoins. Also, PayPal Holdings Inc. may have problems with the regulatory component if non-banking companies are banned from issuing cryptocurrencies.

We also note the continued development of the situation around Ripple. Last week, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it had filed an appeal against the decision of the New York District Court to partially de-recognize the XRP token as a security. In response, Ripple’s lawyers demanded that the petition be canceled because, in their opinion, there are no legal grounds for it. In general, the situation for the company remains uncertain, creating additional pressure on the quotes of the coin.

An upward rebound in prices is likely next week but the downward trend is unlikely to be reversed.