Bitcoin (BTC) price has seen a significant increase in 2022 (by more than 100%), while altcoins are really down significantly from the beginning of the year.

Moreover, nearly altcoin/BTC pairs have been hit new lows, and many of the coins are even so trending downwards, looking for potential support.

Crypto market daily performance

Crypto market place daily functioning. Source: Coin360

One of these coins is XRP (XRP), which has seen a decrease of 50% over the yr, going from $0.39 to $0.195. Will 2022 be a similar year for XRP and altcoins, or tin we encounter a switch in momentum? A new analysis is warranted.

XRP hit new lows in USD value

It was a bad yr for the XRP investor, with the cost hitting new lows over and over again.

XRP USD 1-day chart

XRP USD one-solar day chart. Source: TradingView

Price held the $0.30 back up throughout the beginning of the year. However, XRP wasn't able to provide a college high and connected making lower highs. These lower highs confirmed the downtrend and eventually, the breakup of the $0.xxx support level.

Afterward in the year, the $0.30 level was tested for resistance and confirmed, as can be seen with the rejection earlier in November. This rejection started a new downwards trend, which temporarily ended with the latest low at $0.176. The last time this price level was seen was in November 2022, before a huge rally occurred for XRP.

BTC pair resting on the crucial support

XRP BTC 4-day chart

XRP BTC 4-day chart. Source: TradingView

The XRP/BTC pair is also continuing to tendency downwardly. This can exist seen in the chart above, which shows that XRP started the year around 0.000096 and is currently about 0.000026.  In other words, XRP has lost roughly ii-thirds of its value against Bitcoin in 2022.

However, some exciting signals are given from the chart. First of all, there's a substantial bullish deviation withal beingness practical. Similar divergences were constitute during the lows in November 2022 and at the showtime of January of 2022. This departure marked a tendency reversal before XRP made a five,500% motion.

Crucial for the XRP/BTC pair, however, is holding the dark-green zone as back up. A retest of the lows of September 2022 is non a bad sign. However, a college low needs to construct to sustain the validity of the bullish departure.

Like to other altcoins, XRP is facing a significant downtrend. This red diagonal line has been a trend entrenched for more than than a year. Breaking that line to the upside would potentially phase a big move to the upside.

What will 2022 bring in general?

2019 was not the best twelvemonth for the average investor in altcoins. Many of them have seen a scarlet year with double-digit losses, despite some select altcoins seeing massive growth.

Chainlink (LINK) surged ane,500%, Binance Coin (BNB) rallied 650%, and even Matic Network (MATIC) has seen a rise of 1,360%. However, the large caps didn't meet these numbers, so the question arises: what will 2022 bring?

Altcoin dominance chart

Altcoin say-so chart. Source; CoinTrader.Pro

By analyzing historical charts, the kickoff quarter of the yr tends to be the best period to trade altcoins. The altcoin dominance broke out to the upside in January 2022, causing Ethereum (ETH) to rally i,900%.

Similarly, January 2022 led a significant breakout too, identical to the movements of January 2022, which fabricated Ethereum hit its high of $1,440.

Is the market wheel comparable to January 2022?

Looking closely at marketplace cycles is something that every analyst tries to exercise. Particularly, people like to compare the last top of Bitcoin with the loftier of Bitcoin in December 2022.

Withal, the market saw a like parabolic movement in December '15, just with a big difference. The market had hysterical euphoria during the bull-run of December 2022, while nobody was interested in Bitcoin during a like parabolic move in 2022.

Through that, information technology's more natural to compare the electric current market with the beginning of the final bike, as at that place's about as much euphoria right now as at a funeral.

XRP looking like to December 2022

XRP USD 2-day chart

XRP USD 2-day chart. Source: TradingView

If we analyze XRP against USD again, then the market is showing similarities with the period in December 2022. Similar to then, toll bankrupt below the support of a range and reached the side by side back up level (blue horizontal line in both cases).

Additionally, the price is showing a pregnant downtrend. Breaking this downtrend would potentially lead to a substantial move to the upside, which could button XRP to $0.48, leaving bears in disbelief.

Ethereum facing a like downtrend

ETH BTC 2-day chart

ETH BTC 2-day nautical chart. Source: TradingView

Not only is XRP facing a significant downtrend, but Ether has also had a pretty lackluster year overall.

ETH price is a prime example of an excellent start quarter of the yr. In fact, since Ethereum'south launch, ETH has always provided a bullish Q1. During 2022 and 2022, massive downtrends were broken to the upside, while 2022 saw its peak value in USD.

There was fifty-fifty a lx% gain during the carry market at the beginning of 2022. Only Ether is nevertheless in a two-year downtrend.

Concluding, Ether, and other big caps have to commencement making moves soon, given that they are facing these downtrends. And the overall dominion is; when big caps brainstorm to move, the rest will follow. Therefore, if ETH starts to motion up (it may or may non be due to Ethereum 2.0), most of the ERC-twenty tokens will likely follow suit and possibly kickstart the so-called "altseason" that never quite happened in 2022.

Happy New Year!

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves adventure. You should conduct your own research when making a determination.