Cryptocurrency market in the first week of August

At the end of the last week of July, almost all cryptocurrencies completed trading in positive territory. Bitcoin managed to overcome the $40K level, rising to $41,100. Ethereum strengthened to $2,580 and XPR rose to 75 cents. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization has increased to $1.65 trillion.

As for mining, as a result of another recalculation, the difficulty of bitcoin mining increased by 6.03% and the indicator reached 14.5 trillion hashes. This was the first increase in difficulty since May 13, when the indicator peaked at $25.05 trillion.

As you know, the difficulty correlates with the bitcoin hash rate, which began to fall in May, after problems with the power supply of miners in the Chinese province of Sichuan. The Chinese authorities launched a crackdown on the crypto industry in the country, which also led to a reduction in the computing power of bitcoin. However, in July, the hash rate began to recover, after the return of the miners' equipment to the network, who moved the business from China to other jurisdictions.

Cryptocurrency rate dynamics

According to a report by Crypto.com, the number of cryptocurrency users worldwide more than doubled in the first half of 2021, reaching 221 million in July. Analysts believe that the main driver was the bitcoin rally, the growth of which was supported by the comments of such large companies as PayPal, MicroStrategy, Visa and Mastercard about the acquisition or plans to support the cryptocurrency.

However, in May, there were some events that turned the trend - in particular, Elon Musk's criticism of bitcoin led to a decrease in both the currency rate and the number of network users. At the same time, the indicators of altcoins increased (the number of owners of Dogecoin and Shibaswap increased by about 50%).

Ban in China

The People's Bank of China continues to try to fight the cryptocurrency industry in its country. The regulator believes that it is necessary to curb the trading rush around digital asset trading, and intends to continue to monitor financial platforms.

Recall that the Chinese authorities launched a fight against cryptocurrency trading back in 2017. Since then, large financial institutions in the country have periodically taken measures to contain the cryptocurrency rush.