As a seasoned investor with over three decades of experience under my belt, I’ve witnessed numerous market fluctuations and trends that have shaped the financial landscape. The recent surge in cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, is an intriguing development that caught my attention.
Bitcoin has retreated slightly from its record peak of $108,353, but it’s still holding firm above the crucial support level of $100,000. Approximately 77% of the Bitcoin wallets currently in circulation are showing a profit. This percentage is usually more than 70% for about three-quarters of the leading altcoins listed by market capitalization.
Portfolios focusing heavily on Bitcoin are currently performing better because Bitcoin remains stable above its $100,000 milestone, while the growth period for other cryptocurrencies (altcoins) seems to have slowed down significantly before the holidays. As a result, traders with most of their investments in altcoins may find themselves losing money compared to Bitcoin’s surge in value.
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Bitcoin dominance rises, altcoin season ends
Bitcoin erased its recent gains from the rally to all-time high at $108,353 and is trading above $100,000. BTC dominance is an uptrend and this has likely contributed to the altcoin season’s abrupt end.
The high level of dominance Bitcoin currently holds indicates its significance and sought-after status among crypto traders. Currently, Bitcoin’s dominance stands at 58.53%, which is the highest it has been since November 28th.
According to Blockchaincenter’s altcoin index, if more than three-quarters (75%) of the top 50 alternative cryptocurrencies have performed better than Bitcoin over the past 90 days, it indicates an “altcoin season.” Currently, the index stands at 53, suggesting that the altcoin season has concluded.
Bitcoin outperforms major indices
This year so far, Bitcoin has surged by an impressive 136%, clearly outpacing both the S&P 500 Index (SPX) and the Nasdaq Composite Index (NASX) in their performance.
Yesterday saw a significant drop in the S&P 500, almost 3%, which was its second-most severe decline of 2024. This steep fall came after Federal Reserve officials indicated that they anticipate only two interest rate reductions next year. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced a ten consecutive trading day loss, marking its longest losing streak since 1974.
In simple terms, Bitcoin’s growth this year is more than 136%, making it one of the best-performing assets in the year 2024.
Earlier this month, asset management giant BlackRock recommended a 2% exposure to Bitcoin in multi-asset portfolios for benefits from BTC’s gains and balanced risk. An exposure higher than 2% could mean that the risk outweighs the benefits of including the largest cryptocurrency in a portfolio.
Whales are buying these five altcoins
Large investors in cryptocurrency, much like whales in the ocean, often guide us towards tokens that may increase significantly over time. In the past, when these large wallets start accumulating a specific token, it has been followed by an uptrend in its price within weeks or months, offering direction to traders who are just entering the market.
According to on-chain data from Lookonchain, large investors or “whales” are increasing their holdings of Chainlink (LINK), Etherena (ENA), Hyperliquid (HYPE), Ethereum (ETH), and Ondo (ONDO).
On the platform Lookonchain, they found a significant cryptocurrency wallet, holding LINK, which took out approximately 594,998 LINK, equivalent to around $17.31 million, from the leading decentralized exchange, Binance.
40 minutes back, a significant investor (whale) took out another approximately $1.81 million worth of LINK tokens from Binance. Over the past four days, this whale has withdrawn a total of around $17.31 million worth of LINK tokens from Binance.
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) December 18, 2024
Donald Trump backed World Liberty Financial, and whale wallets are accumulating ENA from Binance.
A fresh wallet withdrew 3.29M $ENA($3.78M) from #Binance 30 minutes ago.
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) December 17, 2024
5 hours ago, World Liberty(@worldlibertyfi) spent $500,000 USD to acquire approximately 509,955 units of $ENA.
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) December 15, 2024
From December 7th to December 18th, a substantial Ethereum wallet transferred over 17 million USD Coin (USDC) and purchased approximately $29.44 million worth of HYPE tokens, taking into account potential future gains.
On the blockchain, Lookonchain noted multiple significant investors (whales) transferring assets into Hyperliquid for the purpose of purchasing HYPE and PURR tokens.
Multiple whales are investing their funds into the #Hyperliquid platform to purchase both $HYPE and $PURR! For instance, the wallet address 0x0013…5D22 deposited 9.66 million USDC into #Hyperliquid, subsequently buying 166,913 $HYPE (equivalent to approximately 4.8 million dollars) and 6.48 million $PURR (worth around 4.14 million dollars). Similarly, the wallet address 0xCA97…651E deposited 4.26 million USDC into #Hyperliquid before buying 125,252 $HYPE (3.57 million dollars) worth and an equivalent amount of $PURR.
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) December 17, 2024
A large investor (a whale) added another 9.89 million USDC to Hyperliquid, using it to purchase approximately 1.02 million HYPE tokens, costing around $29.44 million. Since December 7th, this whale has invested a total of 17.08 million USDC in HYPE, now holding 1.02 million HYPE tokens. The current value of these tokens is worth approximately $31.84 million, indicating an unrealized profit of around $12.4 million for the investor.
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) December 17, 2024
In the ongoing chatter about growth in the leading altcoin, Lookonchain has spotted large Ethereum and Ondo wallets amassing these cryptocurrencies during this past week.
Whales are buying $LINK and $ETH!
A whale with $134M assets withdrew 429,999 $LINK($12.55M) and 1,600 $ETH($6.3M) from exchanges in the last 48 hours.
Address:
0x3c9ea5c4fec2a77e23dd82539f4414266fe8f757— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) December 16, 2024
2 hours ago, World Liberty (@worldlibertyfi) purchased 134,216 ONDO for $250,000 USD.
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) December 16, 2024
Experts say Bitcoin rally could extend in 2025
In an exclusive chat with Crypto.news, Aurelie Barthere, the Lead Research Analyst at Nansen, shared her insights.
Institutional investors, such as asset managers, pension funds, and buy-side investors, might consider adding cryptocurrency to their regular investment portfolios, for example, shifting from a conventional 60/40 split of stocks and bonds to a mix of 55/40/5 (stocks/bonds/cryptocurrency). This is due to a sense that they might have missed out on the 40% rise in Bitcoin over the past three weeks following the election. Could investors potentially overlook crypto investments in the future?
If partially enacted, Senator Lummis’s plan to recognize Bitcoin as a reserve currency could potentially accelerate its adoption. However, it’s important to note that the chance of this proposal becoming reality, particularly before 2026 under the current Federal Reserve’s leadership, seems quite slim in our assessment.
Additionally, the increasing function of Bitcoin as security in traditional finance and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is underscored by collaborations such as Cantor Fitzgerald’s discussions on a potential $2 billion Bitcoin lending deal with Tether.
According to analysts at Bitfinex, there’s a substantial appetite among institutions for Bitcoin, primarily driven by Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and the purchase of spot Bitcoin. They anticipate that Bitcoin’s value could reach significant levels by 2025.
Moving forward, we are convinced that the recent surge toward $100,000 has accounted for a substantial part of Bitcoin’s price growth in this cycle. Our lowest estimate for Bitcoin’s future value still stands between $140,000 and $200,000 by mid-2025.
David Morrison, a Market Analyst at Trade Nation, expressed his insights about market participants’ feelings, as reported by Crypto.news.
Jerome Powell, head of the Federal Reserve, clarified that at this time, the Fed does not possess the ability to maintain a strategic stockpile of cryptocurrencies as suggested by some. This revelation might have added to the negative feelings, but placing bets on the prospect of a U.S. government-backed crypto reserve may not be prudent.
As a researcher observing the cryptocurrency market, I noticed an overnight dip in Bitcoin’s price, sliding back below the $100,000 mark. However, it swiftly bounced back, indicating a resilience that suggests the overall positive sentiment remains relatively unscathed thus far.
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2024-12-19 23:37