Bitcoin rose 0.79% from Aug. 4 to Aug. 11 to US$29,362 as of 7:20 p.m. Friday in Hong Kong. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization briefly rose above US$30,000 twice this week, before falling below the support level. Ether rgained 0.72% over the week to US$1,846, remaining below the US$1,900 support level since July 23.

“Bitcoin began the week quietly. In recent months, crypto volatility has somewhat lessened as investors view the stock market as a better trading vehicle due to the fact that there has been better price action on the stock market,” Lucas Kiely, chief investment officer of digital asset platform Yield App, told Forkast.

Monday brought some much-needed excitement to the crypto space after California-based payments giant PayPal announced the launch of its U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain. The company said that PayPal USD (PYUSD) aims to bridge the gap between fiat currencies and the blockchain for consumers and merchants.

“Paypal has joined an impressive list of major financial institutions which are entering the crypto market,” Alex Konanykhin, the chief executive officer and founder of Unicoin, an equity-backed crypto that pays dividends, told Forkast.

“This trend is a major distinction of the current crypto rally from the previous ones, which were fueled by individual crypto enthusiasts.”

Bitcoin briefly rose to a weekly high of US$30,144 on Wednesday, two days after PayPal’s announcement, but fell below US$30,000 later that day.

PayPal’s new stablecoin will make it easier for the masses to gain exposure to Bitcoin, according to Phillip Lord, president of crypto payment app Oobit. 

“PayPal’s stablecoin is massive news. It will bring a lot more American users into the market for payments and day-to-day use, which will filter into the rest of the [crypto] ecosystem,“ said Lord, in a statement shared with Forkast.

On Wednesday, Coinbase Global announced the public launch of its Ethereum layer-2 blockchain Base.

The U.S. consumer price index (CPI) report released on Thursday showed that inflation rose 3.2% from a year ago in July, with core CPI excluding food and energy prices also increasing 0.2% for the month, matching preliminary estimates.

The global crypto market capitalization stood at US$1.17 trillion on Friday at 7:20 p.m. in Hong Kong, up 0.86% from US$1.16 trillion a week ago, according to CoinMarketCap data. With a market cap of US$571 billion, Bitcoin represented 48.8% of the market while Ether, valued at US$221 billion, accounted for 18.9%.  

Notable Movers: SHIB, RUNE

The Shiba Inu memecoin was this week’s biggest gainer in the top 100, rising 16.75% to US$$0.00001002. The memecoin started picking up momentum last Friday, as investors anticipated the launch of Shibarium, an Ethereum layer-2 blockchain, scheduled for the Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto Aug. 13-17.

Rune, the native governance token of the ThorChain network, was this week’s second-biggest gainer, rising 15.95% to US$1.08. Rune started its price rally on Tuesday, after ThorWallet announced the introduction of Visa Cards and Swiss bank accounts for users.

As for the week’s biggest losers, XDC Network’s (XDC) token fell 19.32% to US$0.06616, followed by GMX decentralized exchange’s (GMX) token that declined 12.91% to US$45.11.

See related article: USDT’s goal is to be the dollar, not beat it, says Tether CTO

Next Week: Can Bitcoin close the week above US$29,300?

Bitcoin’s major weekly support lies at US$29,300, according to Aziz Kenjaev, financial analyst and director of business development at cross-chain liquidity protocol Entangle.

“As for the technical analysis, there’s still room for the continuation of a correction down to US$28,600 if Bitcoin closes below US$29,300,” Kenjaev told Forkast, referencing the below chart. 

Next week, investors await the release of the minutes of July’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting, for insight on the U.S. Fed’s interest rate decisions.

The Fed meets on Sep. 19 to make its next move on interest rates, which are now between 5.25% to 5.5%, the highest in 22 years. Analysts at the CME FedWatch Tool predict a 89% chance of no interest rate hike in September, up from 87% on Thursday.

In the crypto space, Canada’s ETH Toronto hackathon will open its gates on Tuesday, with notable speakers like Cosmos co-founder Ethan Buchman and pseudonymous Shiba Inu founder Shytoshi Kusama. 

See related article: Hackers hit Curve, China announces blockchain link & is FTX back?

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• Source: https://forkast.news/weekly-market-wrap-bitcoin-close-week-above-us29300/