Bitcoin Rollecoasters Above $43K as Spot BTC ETF Decision Looms: This Week’s Market Update

This week has been quite eventful in terms of Bitcoin’s price action. In general, the total market capitalization increased by some $20 billion, which came on the back of a slight uptick in BTC. Most of the altcoins are trading in the red, so let’s have a look at what happened.

First things first, Bitcoin is currently sitting at slightly below $44K, registering an increase of 2% for the past seven days. This also makes it the best performer from the top 10… by far.

The week started relatively quietly, but this all changed on the first day of the new year, when the BTC price exploded toward $46K, registering prices not seen in many months. The move was largely driven by the increased expectations of an approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

For two days, BTC stayed above $45K, but on January 3rd, the price tanked back toward $42K. The catalyst – a report from Matrixport, stating that most of the spot BTC ETF applications will be rejected, according to an analyst from the firm. The curious thing was that the same analytics company had posted a predominantly bullish outline, causing quite the confusion in the community.

Elsewhere, the altcoin market is having a lot of trouble. Ethereum is down 4.5%, Solana – 7.9%, XRP – almost 10%. This is the trend throughout most of the altcoins.

Bitcoin’s dominance – the metric which tracks its share relative to that of the rest of the market – is slightly below 50%.

Overall, it’s particularly interesting to see if the US SEC will finally give the regulatory nod to a spot Bitcoin ETF. The move is expected to attract significant investment inflows into the cryptocurrency as it would alleviate a lot of the legal and technical hassle currently surrounding BTC.

Therefore, the next few days are likely to be incredibly interesting and worth watching.

Market Data

Market Cap: $1.727T | 24H Vol: $106B | BTC Dominance: 49.4%

BTC: $43,600 (+2%) | ETH: $2,232 (-4.5%) | BNB: $314 (+0.5%)

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss

Happy 15th Birthday, Bitcoin: Here’s The Journey So Far. Bitcoin celebrated its 15th birthday this week. The network is more secure than ever, with the hash rate booming to new highs on a regular basis, and interest in the cryptocurrency is also very high.

Here’s Ethereum’s Roadmap for 2024, According to Vitalik Buterin. Vitalik Buterin, one of Ethereum’s co-founders, released his outline on what 2024 holds for the network. He said the team will focus on very important developments such as the Surge, the Scourge, the Verge, the Purge, and the Splurge.

Bitcoin Whales Stir Frenzy: Largest Spike in Transactions Over $100k in Nearly 2 Years. During the week when the Bitcoin network took fifteen years, it also saw the largest surge in transactions exceeding $100,000. This number hasn’t been since in the past two years.

Here’s When Bitcoin Will Correct 20-30% Due to ‘Vicious Washout,’ According to Arthur Hayes. Arthur Hayes – one of the BitMEX co-founders and former CEO – predicted that the cryptocurrency market is still in the early stages of a bull market. He thinks they will be a potential correction in the range of 20% to 30% but also expects the positive trend to continue after March.

Rotation Back Into Ethereum Begins, Could ETH Hit $10,000 in 2024? Ethereum took a beating throughout the past 30 days as alternative blockchains surged in activity. The prime example is Solana. Now, however, some analysts believe that it’s time for a rotation back to ETH and a potential surge in 2024.

Robert Kiyosaki Tells Followers To Keep An Eye On The Bitcoin Halving. Robert Kiyosaki – a well-known author and financial commentator – says that the Bitcoin halving will be particularly pivotal in the next few months.

Charts

This week, we have a chart analysis of Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Solana, and Binance Coin – click here for the complete price analysis.