• Bitcoin balances on exchanges have increased as traders swap for trending altcoins including new meme coins.
• The EU vote on crypto regulations has attracted US-based firms including Coinbase that have experienced hostile local scrutiny.

After breaking out of last month’s resistance zone around $28.4K, Bitcoin price dropped about 6.41 percent this week to trade around $28K going into the weekend. Bitcoin miners and holders have accelerated the selling pressure with more than 14.4K Bitcoins added on the largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily traded volume, Binance, in the past seven days. Notably, an increase in Bitcoin holdings on centralized exchanges is perceived as a bearish sentiment.

From the derivatives market, more than 80 percent of long traders were liquidated in the past 24 hours, with a total of $157 million rekt. Bitcoin traders were the most with 83 percent long traders of $59 million liquidated in the last 24 hours. 

Bitcoin and the crypto market outlook

With the rise of new meme-coins such as $PEPE and $WOJAK, Bitcoin’s dominance has continued to depict bearish momentum. According to market data provided by Binance-backed and TradingView, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at around 47.16 percent of the total crypto market capitalization. Ethereum followed closely with a market dominance of approximately 18.7 percent. Notably, the total crypto market capitalization hovered around $1.23 trillion and a total daily traded volume of about $60.8 billion.

The most influential crypto development in the past week came from the European Union’s parliament. After months of deliberation, the EU regulators almost unanimously passed the Markets in Crypto-Assets Act (MiCA), legislation that standardizes regulations and establishes harmonized rules for crypto assets across the European Union.

The move was viewed as a bullish outlook from the crypto market, which previously received hostile regulatory developments from the United States. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission under the leadership of Chair Gary Gensler has been accused of silently killing the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry. During a recent Congressional hearing, Gensler had a hard time answering whether altcoins are securities or commodities. 

“The Kabuki theatre that unfolded in Washington this week suggests Asia and other jurisdictions will continue to gain market share from the U.S.,” Mark Connors, the head of research at Canadian crypto asset manager 3iQ, noted. Adding that’

Coinbase’s decision to get licensed in Bermuda to launch an exchange as early as next week shows that U.S. digital asset companies are now voting with their feet. So this week we had both price and regulatory volatility, with only one clear loser, the U.S. economy.

Price action

The Bitcoin market still has high volatility compared to the traditional stock industry despite having a market capitalization of above half a trillion dollars. From a technical standpoint, Bitcoin price could have more choppy days ahead as the weekly death cross between the 50 and 200 MA hold effects. As a result, a popular crypto analyst on Twitter, Mikybull, anticipates Bitcoin to continue in correction mode if $29k is rejected again in the coming days.

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