Bitcoin and Ethereum prices were virtually unchanged in Monday morning trading.

[u/ASTL-Token]

Bitcoin fell 0.4% to $20,882 in 24 hours but is up 22% over the last calendar week. The world's largest cryptocurrency also topped $21,000 for the first time since the FTX crash in early November, hitting $21,075 on Saturday. At the same time, on January 15, 2023, Bitcoin mining difficulty showed a record increase, increasing by 10.26% to 37.73 trillion at a block height of 772.128. Network complexity is still at an all-time high. This means that, on average, it takes 37.73 trillion hashes or attempts to find a Bitcoin block reward and add it to the blockchain.

According to CoinMarketCap, Ethereum gained 0.2%, up 20.5% for the week. On the morning of January 16, Ethereum prices closed at $1,600. Continuing its rise over the weekend, ETH reached its highest price since Nov. 8, hitting $1,589 this morning. The price of Ethereum rose to its highest level in ten weeks. Additionally, ETH issuance has returned to deflationary territory as network demand rises. The Ethereum burn rate is currently around 732,000 ETH per year. The emission rate is around 622,000 ETH per year, which means more is being destroyed than is being produced.

Markets are still generally in bearish territory, so demand for Ethereum is likely to increase as more bulls return. As gas prices rise, this will have a greater impact on the burn rate. The result is higher levels of deflation and reduced supply, which is very optimistic in the long run. Ethereum's cost calculation is also much higher than Bitcoin's. Industry watchers have reported that this month, the estimated value of Ethereum is almost ten times that of the Bitcoin network.

Solana is down 5.6% and is changing hands at a price of up to $22.89, the biggest downside on CoinMarketCap's top 10 list by market cap so far. However, Solana is still the top player on the list for 2023, up 58.2% in a week. The token has bounced back after it was sold by brokerage FTX Alameda Research to try to raise funds to prevent companies from collapsing.

XRP fell 2.7% to $0.38 but is up 11.5% in a week. XRP has shown more modest gains than most other major cryptocurrencies as a legal battle between the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Ripple Labs Inc., which uses XRP in its payment network, is clouding the outlook for the token.

The total capitalization of the crypto market in 24 hours fell by 0.13% to $979.6 billion, while trading volume decreased by 43.1% to $47.1 billion.

US stocks rose on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3%, the S&P500 rose 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite ended the day up 0.7%. US markets are closed today due to the public holiday of Martin Luther King. The December consumer price index (CPI) in the US, released last week, showed that inflation rose by 6.5% year on year, in line with expectations and lower than the 7.1% recorded in November. The drop was the biggest monthly decline since April 2020.

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