Bitcoin
Bitcoin increased in price from December 15 to December 22 by about 5%. Attempts to reach $45,000 remain in vain. The week was not replete with super surges: on none of the days did the BTC price change by more than 3.5%.
Source: tradingview.com
While there is a certain lull in the Mecca of the crypto industry – the USA, Latin American countries have become the main suppliers of news. In Argentina, from December 21, it is allowed to conclude contracts with payment in bitcoins. Foreign Minister Diana Mondino announced this on the social network X (formerly Twitter). Such a step, of course, does not mean that Argentina has accepted Bitcoin as a currency, but it can be considered a serious advance in the right direction.
In El Salvador, where BTC has long been recognized as money, this week they issued a law according to which it will be possible to obtain accelerated citizenship if you invest in the economy and social development of the country in the first cryptocurrency. What is most interesting is that the document does not specify what the size of the investment should be.
Bitcoin's dominance reached its highest in two and a half years in December. Up to 55% of the entire crypto market capitalization was accounted for by BTC at some point. On the evening of Friday, December 22, the figure was slightly lower – 52.91%.
Source: tradingview.com
From the point of view of technical analysis, Bitcoin has been stuck sideways since the beginning of December between the resistance levels of $44,700 and support of $40,181. If you look at the indicators, they give different signals. Finding the price above the 50-day moving average (indicated in blue) speaks in favor of the bulls. But the RSI indicator gives a sell signal: due to the formation of a bearish divergence (shown by lilac lines).
Source: tradingview.com
The fear and greed index has increased by four points since last week.. Its value as of December 22, 2023 is 74. This still shows greed prevailing over fear.
Ethereum
Ethereum increased by about 3% in the week from December 15 to December 22, 2023. Not once during the week did the coin rise to the $2,400 mark, despite the fact that five out of seven sessions were in the black. But ETH was quite close to $2,100 several times.
Source: tradingview.com
The movement of the second largest cryptocurrency by capitalization has slowed down since December 9. One factor is the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) hesitation regarding ETH exchange-traded funds.. On Monday, December 18, the regulator once again postponed a decision on several ETFs: Hashdex Nasdaq Ethereum ETF, Grayscale Ethereum Futures Trust, VanEck Ethereum ETF and ARK 21Shares.
The Ethereum developers themselves have lifted the veil of secrecy regarding the Dencun update. It is expected to be implemented before the end of February 2024. At the same time, Dencun will begin testing in test networks: Goerli, Sepolia and Holesky in January.
Glassnode analytics platform co-founders Yann Allemann and Jan Happel are bullish on Ethereum. The duo, known under the pseudonym Negentropic, left a message on the social network X (formerly Tiwtter):
“ETH Update: Ether held steady in the market on Tuesday, targeting the $2,100 level – once a support, now a key area. Where's the rebound? The dynamics of the ascending triangle are as follows. $2,100 is an important level for a short-term rebound. If it is broken, the 50-day exponential average may be activated. What's next? We consider $2,500 as a target, fueled by market enthusiasm. The ambitious push continues to $2,700.”
From the point of view of technical analysis, it is too early to look very far. Initially, you need to pass the resistance level around $2,400, and then aim for more. The support level is indeed in the range of $2,100-$2,140.8. If it is broken, the 50-day exponential average (marked in blue) mentioned by the Glassnode co-founders will suffer a similar fate.
Source: tradingview.com
Solana
Solana continues its protracted growth. From December 15 to December 22, the coin added another 34.5%, coming very close to the $100 mark. This was achieved through two trading sessions on December 20 and 21, when Solana added 12.67% and 14.14%, respectively.
Source: tradingview.com
Such a stormy bearish spurt allowed Solana to first overtake Ripple in capitalization, and then BNB, securing fourth place with almost $42.5 billion in capitalization. In addition, Solana entered the top 500 companies in the world, surpassing organizations such as the American crypto exchange Coinbase and the Russian Gazprom.. What contributed to this development of events?
The first reason is the massive liquidation of short positions in Solana, starting on December 20. The total volume for three partial days amounted to more than $27 million. This is almost 3.5 times more than the same indicator for longs.
Source: coinglass.com
Another factor in favor of Solana’s growing popularity was the jump in the volume of stablecoin transfers on the platform’s blockchain: $16.6 billion per day. This helped SOL beat out its Ethereum competitors, Tron BNB Chain. Interestingly, in 2022, the daily volume of stablecoin transfers at the site never exceeded even $1 billion: the maximum that was achieved was $743 million.
To continue the topic, we can add: the Circle company, which is behind the USDC token, has released a new EURC coin – on the Solana blockchain. The main reason for the decision was the price of gas, which is significantly lower here compared to Ethereum. EURC is a stablecoin pegged to the euro.
Another significant event occurred on December 15. On this day, Solana overtook Ethereum for the first time in terms of trading volume on decentralized exchanges (DEX). And on December 21, this feat was repeated. Thus, Solana is gradually, at least somewhere, beginning to justify the nickname “Ethereum killer.”
Source: defillama.com
Analysts of the Messari portal also believe in cryptocurrency, who dubbed it “crypto’s comeback player of the year.”. They celebrate the success of Solana after many stopped believing in the project amid the collapse of FTX in the fall of 2022. A number of innovations have allowed the site to reduce the number of failures.
From a technical analysis point of view, Solana continues its bullish trend. SOL token price is well above the 50-week moving average (in blue). The RSI indicator is in the overbought zone, but this is a fairly characteristic sign of a bullish trend and should not be taken into account as a bearish one. The next target for Solana could be the resistance level around $142. Support level is around $75.
Source: tradingview.com
Thus, the crypto market has grown over the week. At the same time, Solana looked significantly better than Bitcoin and Ethereum. The future direction of cryptocurrencies will depend on the SEC's decisions regarding Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, as well as updates within the platforms themselves.
This material and the information contained herein do not constitute individual or other investment advice.. The editors' opinions may not coincide with the opinions of the author, analytical portals and experts.