Decentral Block Post

Ether (ETH) price is up 16% since July 1 and has outperformed Bitcoin (BTC) in the last 7 days. The move could be partially driven by investors clinging to their hopes that the Ethereum network transition to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus will be a bullish catalyst.

The next steps for this smart contract involve "the Merge," which was previously known as Eth 2.0. The final trial on the Goerli test network is expected in July before the Ethereum mainnet gets the green light for its upgrade.

Since Terra’s ecosystem collapsed in mid-May, Ethereum’s total value locked (TVL) has increased and the flight-to-quality in the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry largely benefited Ethereum thanks to its robust security and battle-tested applications, including MakerDAO.

Ethereum currently holds a 57% market share of TVL, up from 51% on April 8, according to data from Defi Llama. Despite this gain, the current $35 billion in deposits on the networks' smart contracts seem small compared to the $100 billion seen in December 2021.

Further supporting the decrease in decentralized application use on Ethereum is a drop in the median transfer fees, or gas costs, which currently stand at $1.32. This figure is the lowest since mid-December 2020 when the network's TVL stood at $13 billion. However, one might attribute part of the movement to higher use of layer-2 solutions such as Polygon and Arbitrum.

Much to the chagrin of cryptocurrency investors across the ecosystem, the bear market has officially set in and brought with it devastating price collapses that have left relatively few unscathed. 

As the popular topic of conversation now centers on bearish predictions of how low Bitcoin (BTC) will go and how long this iteration of the crypto winter will last, those with more experience on the matter know that it’s virtually impossible to predict the bottom and it would be wise to apply those energies elsewhere.

Instead of focusing on the when of the end, perhaps it’s more constructive to explore what events might help pull the market out of the bear market depths and put it on a path to its next up cycle.

Here’s a look at five potential catalysts that could pull the crypto market out of its current malaise.

A successful Ethereum merge

One of the most highly anticipated developments of the past five years has been the ongoing transition of the Ethereum network from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.

Bitcoin (BTC) rallied to the 200-week moving average on July 8, a level that could act as a battleground between the bulls and the bears. Several analysts are watching this level because a break and close above it could be the first sign that the bear market may be ending.

Bloomberg senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone said that Bitcoin’s 50-week and 100-week moving averages are showing similar signs as made before the 2018 bear market bottom. Therefore, McGlone expects Bitcoin to give a strong rebound in the second half of 2022.

Another positive sign is that Bitcoin rose above $22,000 on July 8 even as the United States dollar index (DXY) continued its northward march. This suggests that the strong inverse correlation between Bitcoin and the DXY may be starting to weaken.

Could Bitcoin extend its recovery pulling the crypto markets higher? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

BTC/USDT

Bitcoin broke above the resistance line of the symmetrical triangle and the 20-day exponential moving average (EMA) ($21,233) on July 7, indicating that bulls are making a comeback.