This week, the cryptocurrency market was declining, but by now, most leading assets have recovered their lost positions. BTC is trading at 65000.00 ( 1.6%), ETH is around 3070.00 (–0.4%), USDT – at 1.0004 ( 0.05%), BNB at 555.00 (–1.9%), and SOL at 145.00 ( 2.3%). The total market capitalization by the end of the week was 2.29T dollars, and the BTC share on it was 52.96%.

Several ambiguous geopolitical and monetary factors affect the digital market. Thus, last weekend, the situation in the Middle East sharply worsened, and an Iranian drone attack on Israeli territory raised fears among investors of the outbreak of a new major military conflict, which resulted in an outflow of funds into traditional shelter assets, primarily, precious metals and the American dollar. Overall, traders liquidated more than 2.5B dollars in open positions in the cryptocurrency market. However, the limited damage to Israeli infrastructure and the absence of casualties led to the recovery of the quotes. Then, US Fed chairman Jerome Powell and some of his colleagues said that the resumption of inflation in the American economy could lead to interest rates remaining high for a long time, which increased the likelihood of postponing monetary policy adjustments from June to September and weakened alternatives to the dollar assets. Finally, today, the industry came under pressure again amid an Israeli missile attack on the Iranian airbase in Isfahan, partially offset by the expectation of an imminent Bitcoin halving on Saturday. Most experts believe that after the reduction in the reward for the mined block, BTC will significantly adjust downwards, weakening other digital assets due to partial profit-taking by investors. In addition, miners will initially have to sell accumulated tokens to cover losses and finance business restructuring. After this, prolonged consolidation is possible, and only then the first cryptocurrency will resume growth and reach new historical highs. Experts of JPMorgan Chase & Co. believe that the BTC rate will fall to the area of 42.000.00, and the entire cycle from halving to the start of price recovery can take 6-18 months, according to various estimates.

In the meantime, the Solana network development team has released software update version 1.17.31, which reduces transaction processing time on the blockchain, and further improvements in network performance and failure prevention will continue in version 1.18, which is being tested. Meanwhile, the Dubai authorities have issued a license to the Binance crypto exchange to provide services in the field of virtual assets, allowing the company to expand its business in the region significantly. On Monday, investors will wait for the response from Ripple’s lawyers to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) claims. Last month, the regulator demanded the company pay 2.0B dollars in fines, insisting the management violated US federal law even after the trial began in December 2020. If the evidence of Ripple representatives does not satisfy the court, the corporation will face significant financial costs, and the digital sector will be under pressure.

Next week, the quotes of leading cryptocurrencies may decline or consolidate.