Spot ETFs for Bitcoin and Ethereum may be approved in the US in early January. The crypto industry is looking forward to the resolution of the sore issue. A week before the event, prices for major cryptocurrencies changed almost imperceptibly.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin lost 3.3% in a week. All seven days passed in a fairly narrow range: from $44,027 to $41,639. Not once during the trading session did the price of BTC change by more than 2.5%.
Source: tradingview.com
While the crypto market is frozen in anticipation of the opening of the window when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may approve spot Bitcoin ETFs. In the meantime, companies continue to submit and update applications. On December 28, the American regulator received an amended application from Ark21Shares. Previously, the SEC ordered everyone to make changes before December 29.
While Bitcoin is trading 38% below its highs, the number of bullish institutional investors has reached an all-time high.. This is signaled by The Bitcoin Futures Smart Money Index from MacroMicro.
Source: macromicro.me
Investors are in anticipation of important news. This is evidenced by the fact that the volume of Bitcoin options trading has reached its all-time high.. Current value exceeds $39 billion.
Source: theblock.co
According to technical analysis, Bitcoin continues to remain sideways between the resistance and support levels of $44,729 – $40,181.
Source: tradingview.com
The fear and greed index fell by nine points over the week. Currently the value is 65. This still shows greed over fear.
Ethereum
Ethereum increased by 1.3% over the week. On December 28, the coin reached its maximum value for 2023 – $2,447.2. At the same time, the weekly dynamics were mainly due to the trading session on December 27, when ETH immediately added 6.71%.
Source: tradingview.com
Although Ether's growth clearly paused in December, investors are clearly preparing for a continued rise. The number of long-term ETH holders reached 70% in December, this is the highest ever. This data was shared by the analytical platform IntoTheBlock. If major players did not expect continued growth, then why would they hold ether in their hands?
Positive: 77% of holders at a price of about $2,350 are in profit. There is also an increase in online activity. The number of transactions from the lows of the end of September (863,503) increased almost one and a half times, to 1.25 million.
Source: etherscan.io
Also in the second half of December 2023, there was a clear increase in the number of active addresses in the Ethereum network. If on December 16 their number was slightly more than 383,000, then in the following days the figure never fell below 432,000.
Source: etherscan.io
Growing indicators show: investors believe in the second largest cryptocurrency by capitalization.
From the point of view of technical analysis, Ethereum has been flat since the beginning of December 2023. At the same time, the indicator signals are multidirectional. The RSI has formed a bearish divergence (marked with green arrows). The coin is still trading above the 50-day moving average (in yellow), giving a bullish signal. Further growth should be expected if ether rises above the resistance level of $2,447.2. If the price falls below the support level of $2,140.8, then there is a high probability of a correction.
Source: tradingview.com
Cardano
The Cardano cryptocurrency fell in price by 0.67% from December 22 to December 29, 2023. Most of the trading sessions, four out of seven, ended up being negative. At the same time, on Thursday, December 28, Cardano came close to the yearly maximum ($0.67941), but was unable to break through it.
Source: tradingview.com
Based on the dynamics of price changes for the ADA token, we can say that major events will continue to occur in 2024. This is confirmed by the news. Emurgo, which is one of the main entities behind Cardano, reported on X (formerly Twitter) that there will be a lot of new things coming to the platform in 2024. The most important event will be the Chang hard fork, which should approve a new governance model within the community. The model is promised to allow for greater decentralization in decision making. Chang is expected to be held in early 2024.
Cardano’s work is in full swing, as confirmed by statistics provided by the analytical platform Santiment. Here are the top 10 cryptocurrencies by developer activity. First on this list is Cardano. She was already at the top of the list in early October, and now she's making a remarkable comeback.
From a technical analysis point of view, Cardano is flat. At the same time, the global trend remains bullish. This is confirmed by the fact that the price remains above the 50-day (indicated in blue) and 200-day (indicated in yellow) moving averages. Moreover, in mid-November the first of them crossed the second from bottom to top, forming the so-called “golden cross”. This is a strong bullish signal. The nearest resistance level is just below $0.68, the support level is $0.562.
Source: tradingview.com
Conclusion
So, the last week of 2023 turned out to be quite sluggish for the crypto market. Bitcoin, Ethereum and Cardano prices moved less than 5%. Chances for a rebound come in early January when the window opens for the SEC to approve spot ETFs.
This material and the information contained herein do not constitute individual or other investment advice. The opinion of the editors may not coincide with the opinions of the author, analytical portals and experts.