The cryptocurrency market finished the week nearly flat after recovering from a macroeconomic dip that erased $50 billion in value. The initial downturn on September 29 briefly pushed aggregate market capitalization to $2.95 trillion before a late-week rally drove the total back to $2.99 trillion.
Bitcoin gained 1% over the week to close at $85,500, securing a market capitalization just over $1.7 trillion. The asset dipped below $83,000 on Monday but held above that support level through midweek. Bitcoin reached $87,217 on October 2, matching levels not seen since September 23, but surrendered those gains before a weekend rebound lifted prices back above $85,500. Bitcoin finished September up 7% and narrowed its year-to-date losses to 4%.
Altcoins Show Divergent Moves
Major altcoins tracked bitcoin's range-bound price action with largely flat weekly performances. Ether (ETH) gained 0.4% to close at $2,700 after bottoming on September 28 and reaching a Thursday high of $2,754.
High-cap altcoins showed mixed momentum. BNB rose to $789, up from $778. Quant (QUANT) surged 39% and Hedera (HBAR) gained 9%, representing some of the week's notable gainers.
Privacy coin Zcash (ZEC) experienced the steepest declines, plummeting 17% from just over $1,600 to $1,332. Other significant losers included Rain (RAIN), down 9%; Near (NEAR), down 8.6%; Uniswap (UNI), down 7.3%; and Bitcoin Cash (BCH), down 5.2%.
The mixed altcoin performance dragged their aggregate market cap down from $1.3 trillion at the week's start to $1.285 trillion by Sunday.
