The largest memecoins have risen sharply in price

A whole list of cryptocurrencies from the memecoins category have risen in price by hundreds of percent over the past month

Bitcoin has risen in price about one and a half times in the last month, so that its price has exceeded $66 thousand. But several well-known cryptocurrencies from the list of memecoins have overtaken the first cryptocurrency in terms of growth rates and brought their investors hundreds of percent of profit.

In the last 24 hours alone, the largest memecoins by capitalization have risen in price by tens of percent, according to CoinMarketCap. Among them, Pepe (PEPE), Bonk (BONK) and DogeCoin (DOGE) were the leaders of growth, adding 60%, 50% and 20% respectively.

Memecoins often grow significantly in value after Bitcoin and Ethereum rallies, and traders redistribute profits into altcoins.

The trigger for the rise in the price of memecoins may have been the soaring price of the PEPE token.

This happened after Binance, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, launched a promotion with an opportunity to get PEPE tokens as a reward.

Over the past seven days, PEPE has increased in value by 376%, and over the past month the coin has risen by 632%. The trading volume of the token on exchanges has increased by 100% in the last 24 hours and reached $3 billion.

This time, the growth of memecoins coincided with another wave of popularity of DOGE, which almost doubled in price in one week. The capitalization of the asset reached $24 billion. Dogecoin is in the top ten leaders in terms of market capitalization according to CoinMarketcap.

The Shiba Inu memecoin (SHIB), inspired by the Shiba Inu dog breed, was in the growth leaders, adding 30% in the last 24 hours. A mechanism to reduce the number of tokens in circulation continues to support its price. Earlier this month, the development team announced that more than 643 million SHIB tokens were burned during February.

Despite the risk of high volatility, some large platforms, such as Solana, see memecoins as a way to expand their ecosystem and interact with users.

On March 4, for example, the Bonk memecoin (BONK) rose in price by 56%. Over the past six months, the price of this cryptocurrency has increased by thousands of percent largely due to the integration of the token into the Saga smartphone from Solana developers. And whose owners could claim a free BONK token giveaway.

The current rise in the cryptocurrency’s price coincided with the announcement of the BONK token development fund’s partnership with Revolut, the largest licensed fintech company. And serving over 38 million customers across Europe. Floki Inu, a meme cryptocurrency inspired by Ilon Musk’s dog, has broken into the top ten in terms of growth.

In the last seven days, the price of the FLOKI token has increased by 326%. Floki developers decided to pour oil on the fire by announcing in late February the burning of 2% of the total volume of tokens, which amounts to almost 200 billion FLOKI. Token burning is often considered by analysts as a factor that favors token value. New memcoins launching in late 2023, before the start of a bullish period in the crypto market, are generating notable returns for early investors.

New memecoins launching in late 2023, ahead of a bullish period in the crypto market, are generating notable returns for early investors.

The Solana blockchain-based token WIF has become one of the top altcoins in terms of growth over the past week. And having risen in value by nearly 400%. The growth was largely fueled by the token’s addition to leading US brokerage platform Robinhood.

Our experts note that In late February, analytics platform Lokonchain reported on a trader who made almost $1 million on WIF. Back in November 2023, he bought 2.58 million WIF for $310 in the Solana cryptocurrency. On February 27, the price of WIF rose to $0.57, and the value of the coins owned by the trader reached approximately $1.4 million. Thus, his profit from investing in the WIF token was 4500%.

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Why the Uniswap exchange offered to share profits with its token holders

The Uniswap proposal involves distributing a portion of the commissions. And which it charges from exchange pool liquidity providers to the UNI token holders involved in managing the protocol

The management token of leading decentralized exchange Uniswap (UNI) rose 70% in just an hour and a half on February 24. And reaching the maximum since April 2022. This happened after the developers suggested sharing the service’s revenue with token holders.

The UNI token is the management token of Uniswap, the largest decentralized cryptocurrency exchange by capitalization. Its holders can participate in the management of the protocol through voting on various community proposals. Right now, the UNI token is trading at $10. But trading volumes dropped by more than 50% a day after the initiative appeared. The total value of blockchain assets on Uniswap exceeds $5 billion.

Uniswap Foundation announced a new motivational strategy for UNI token holders. The company plans to distribute commissions from protocol transactions to UNI token holders. And actively participating in the protocol management process. Key parameters related to commissions will continue to be controlled by the Uniswap Foundation itself.

Devin Walsh, executive director of the Uniswap Foundation, said the proposal aims to incentivize active delegation (of votes). And which will lead to the long-term success and sustainability of the protocol.

This isn’t the first time the idea itself has been brought up for discussion, but this is the time when it could actually be implemented. According to Blockworks analyst Matt Feibach, it is unlikely that the Uniswap Foundation would have taken such a step without carefully assessing the sentiments of the largest token holders.

The idea of sharing profits with token holders immediately resonated with other projects. Following Uniswap, the Frax Finance protocol team is going to put a proposal to the community to vote on the distribution of the protocol’s revenues among the holders of the project’s derivative tokens. Following the publication that Frax plans to follow Uniswap’s lead, the FXS token reacted with a short-term rise of 16%.

Our experts also note that the founder of the largest NFT platform Blur and the new blockchain ecosystem Blast under the pseudonym Pacman is also interested in the implementation of a user reward mechanism. And like Uniswap: he stated that the Blur community should follow their lead. The Blur token reacted to the publication by growing by more than 10%.

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Two major reasons why Bitcoin will update highs before halving

Historical data on market cycles and the value of one of the major technical indicators may indicate further Bitcoin appreciation

Bitcoin could surpass the all-time high of $69,000 by the time of the fourth halving, scheduled for the second half of April. About it writes CoinDesk.

Technical indicators

Based on data from the relative strength index (RSI) indicator, which measures the speed and change in prices, Markus Tillen suggested an acceleration of bitcoin’s uptrend.

A week ago, bitcoin’s 14-day RSI exceeded the 80 mark for the first time since December. According to 10X Research, 12 out of 14 times in the past when the RSI exceeded the 70 mark. That bitcoin price rose an average of 54% over the next 60 days.

“It’s worth noting that the previous time this signal appeared, the bitcoin price was at $48k. When considering an average return of 54% over 60 days, bitcoin could rise to the $74,600 level,” noted Markis Tillen of 10X Research.

The bitcoin price is at $52k, as of February 20, which is 25% above the price level at the beginning of the year and 207% above the low reached in November 2022. Bitcoin quotes are just 28% below the all-time high of $69k. And with that, the supply of coins will decrease as a result of the upcoming halving.

The second reason is Market Cyclicality

Our experts note that as previous cycles have shown. Which are related to bitcoin halving, the bottom of bitcoin price often comes 12-16 months before the halving. And then a period of growth follows, both before the event itself and for a year afterward. In the previous three cycles, bitcoin prices rose more than 30% in the eight weeks before the halving.

Based on historical data, bitcoin rises an average of 32% in the 60 days before the halving. “By the time of the halving or even earlier, the value of BTC could be approaching a record high of $69,000,” CoinDesk quoted Marcus Tillen as saying.

The assumptions of other cryptocurrency market analysts coincide with the predictions of 10X Research. Analysts of the trading company QCP Capital published a note for investors. And in which they allowed the possibility of BTC exceeding the historical maximum already by the end of March. In their opinion, the price of digital currency will depend on the inflow of funds into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and accumulation of options to buy bitcoin with strike prices of $60-80 thousand.

According to the calculations of another analytical company – CryptoQuant, the price of the first cryptocurrency can grow to $112 thousand. And if the current trend of inflow of funds into exchange-traded funds ( ETF) for BTC continues.

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Bitcoin futures turnover rises to $21 billion What it means

Open interest in BTC futures close to record high in November 2021

Open Interest (Open Interest) futures trading on bitcoin (BTC) exceeded $21 billion. And is approaching the record of $24 billion, recorded in mid-November 2021. And when bitcoin cost $65 thousand, writes CoinDesk with reference to data from the analytical service Coinglass.

In traditional trading under the open interest (Open Interest) is understood as the total number of purchase orders. Which are available at the time of market opening. In futures and options trading, Open Interest is the total number of contracts outstanding at a given point in time. This includes futures contracts that have not yet been exercised, have not yet expired, or have not been settled by delivery of the underlying assets.

Open interest serves as a metric for assessing the level of involvement of market participants in a particular futures contract. An active growth in open interest combined with an increase in the price of the asset may indicate an active upward movement.

The rise in interest in futures has coincided with the BTC price rising more than 25% over the past three weeks. And driven mainly by large-scale investments in spot bitcoin ETFs in the US.

The overall credit load in the market remains low. And that reduces the risk of price collapse and high volatility due to forced closure of long or short positions due to lack of collateral. According to CryptoQuant, bitcoin’s leverage ratio recently increased slightly from 0.18 to 0.20, but is still far from last year’s levels.

Our experts note that  Open interest in bitcoin-denominated futures currently stands at 430,500 bitcoins. And that is well below the October 2022 peak of 660,000 bitcoins, according to CoinGlass data.

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Bitcoin and Ethereum have hit two-week highs

Bitcoin and Ethereum showed growth for the first time after a sharp drop in late January

The bitcoin (BTC) exchange rate rose by 4% on February 8. And rising at the moment to $44,733 in a pair to the Tether USD (USDT) stablecoin on the Binance exchange. Our experts note that BTC last traded above $44,000 on January 24.

The second largest cryptocurrency Ethereum (ETH) also updated its two-week high at $2.44 thousand, adding more than 3% to its price over the day. The current year’s high for Ethereum was reached on January 12 at $2719 amid investors’ expectations of U.S. regulators’ approval of spot ETFs for Ethereum. And applications for which were submitted by BlackRock, Grayscale and Fidelity Investments.

Now the jump in the price of ETH also came amid the filing of an updated joint ETF application from 21 Shares and Ark Invest, managed by Katie Wood. The document, in particular, updated data on the redemption mechanism for units of the future ETF. And information about the possibility of placing the fund’s coins in staking in external services.

The latter fact caused a sharp growth of tokens of staking services. Thus, the rate of LDO token from the largest staking service Lido jumped by 7% at the moment. And when news of Ark Invest’s updated bid hit the terminals. LDO is among the top 40 largest crypto assets by capitalization with a market cap of over $2.5 billion. According to the official website, Lido hosts $23 billion worth of ETH coins at the current exchange rate.

Other coins from the top 10 by capitalization also rose in price over the past 24 hours. The Solana (SOL) token rose more than 6% over the day, while BNB from Binance, Cardano (ADA), Dogecoin (DOGE) and Ripple’s XRP rose in price by 3 to 9%.

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New drivers are needed. What will happen to Bitcoin in the coming week

Our experts analyzed the market situation and told how it may change this week for Bitcoin and the market as a whole

During the period from January 22 to January 28, the Bitcoin price showed high volatility. During the week, Bitcoin traded in a wide range from $38,555 to $42,246.

On Monday, January 22, the price fell below the $40k mark, reaching $39,480. The drop was caused by the active outflow of funds from Grayscale’s bitcoin-ETF amid the endorsement of competing products.

On Tuesday, January 23, the Bitcoin price fell to a low of $38,555. And that led to a wave of liquidations in the futures market. The outflow from Grayscale continued to exert pressure.

On January 24 and 25, quotations consolidated in the range of $39,484 – $40,555 with multidirectional dynamics. High volatility remained on the market. Market participants were waiting for some new portion of positive news.

On Friday, January 26, at the end of the day, the BTC/USD pair rose by 4.66% to $41,823. Buyers managed to stop the collapse of the crypto market. After a 13-day drop of 21% from the January 11 high of $48,969, the price recovered 9.57% to $42,246. They have reversed the drop for January 22, and this is a positive for the whole market.

Reasons for the fall in the price of  Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s downward correction has been largely attributed to redemptions in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). Before GBTC was converted into an ETF on January 11. And it was one of the few ways for U.S. investors to access BTC without owning the underlying cryptocurrency. After the long-awaited approval on Jan. 10, investors took the opportunity to sell their GBTC units, locking in profits on their trades. This meant an exit from the cryptocurrency market, hence the downward pressure on the bitcoin price. Outflows from the fund totaled nearly $4 billion.

The price bounced off the $38,555 support. The recovery accelerated after JPMorgan said that the peak of GBTC sales is mostly over. The upward correction intensified from the European session with the decline in the dollar index. The outflow of funds from the Grayscale trust slowed down, which led to an easing of pressure on the cryptocurrency.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF iShares (IBIT) has had a significant impact on the cryptocurrency investment industry. In just 10 days after the fund’s launch, the company has accumulated $1,982,095,794 or 49952.32570 BTC (from a report from BlackRock’s website) in assets under management (AUM) after the fund’s launch and market cap. The amount indicates a lot of interest among investors. At the current exchange rate, it is already over $2 billion.

When the price correction will end

Cautious investors have now taken a wait-and-see attitude. As this is only the first upward wave after the market collapse. Then sellers will check buyers once again. And how ready they are to defend the $38,555 level and raise the rate to $69k for Bitcoin by the halving, which will take place around April 20.

BitRiver predicts that the decline phase will end on February 10. Then we can test the level of $50 thousand. In order to support the bullish trend from the low of $24,901 from September 11, 2023. The higher the buyers drive the price, the less likely it is to update the $38,555 support.

There is great news for buyers now – a pinbar is forming on the weekly chart – a green body with a long lower shadow. Our experts remind that the fall from $48,969 started with such an inverted candle. And this is a bid for growth up to $45 thousand.

Important events of this week

The economic calendar is quite full of important data. January 30 will see the release of Eurozone GDP data for the fourth quarter. January 31 will see the release of China’s manufacturing PMI for January. And oil inventory reports from the American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting and J. Powell’s press conference. On February 1, the States will publish the index of business activity in the manufacturing sector. And on February 2 – a report on the employment market (unemployment, new jobs, average hourly earnings). And also the consumer sentiment index from the University of Michigan for January.

As for the Federal Reserve’s next moves, CME Group’s FedWatch tool predicts a rate hike at next Wednesday’s (Jan. 31) Fed meeting with a 96.7% probability. Votes in March are split, but the probability of a cut in May is estimated at around 87%.

 

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What will happen to Bitcoin in the coming week

Our experts analyzed the market situation and told us how it may change this week and what will be the price of Bitcoin

In the past week, Bitcoin’s dynamics were determined primarily by the external background – the U.S. dollar, stock indicators and decisions of crypto market regulators.

After a sharp drop on January 12, Bitcoin price consolidated in the range of $41,500 – $43,500 for five days. On January 16, a local maximum was reached at $43,578. However, the excitement around the launch of the bitcoin-ETF in the US did not lead to sustained growth.

The pressure remained amid the strengthening of the dollar. And the negative dynamics of stock indices and continued outflows from the Grayscale fund. From January 11-17 alone, $1.624 billion was withdrawn from Grayscale.

On January 18, the SEC postponed its decision on Ethereum-ETF launch applications until March 5. This disappointed investors and triggered a resumption of the downgrade. On the day, BTC dropped to $40,630, and at the end of the day, it lost 3.4%, dropping to $41,327.

On Friday, January 18, the BTC/USD pair closed with growth. The price rose by 0.80%, to $41,659. At the beginning of the U.S. session, the bitcoin exchange rate was declining to $40,280. Sellers tried to pass the support of $40,500, but failed. Buyers were supported by two factors: the decline in the dollar index and the growth of stock indices. By the close of the day, the price went into the plus side. At the same time, all 11 bitcoin-ETFs showed growth of about 2%.

Despite Friday’s decline, the US Dollar Index (DXY) ended the week in the plus on the back of rising US bond yields. And lower probability of rate cuts in March and May. According to the CME FedWatch Tool, the probability of interest rate cuts in March and May is 46% and 51%, respectively, compared to 76.9% and 17% as of Jan. 12.

Bitcoin price

Bitcoin is at $40,600+ at the time of writing this review. Our experts note that the price may trade above the key support of $40,500 until February 6. The downward movement from $48,969 to $40,280 has a three-wave formation. This means that the price may return to the level of $44,300 by January 23. A return to it would not be a signal to buy bitcoin. The probability of the price dropping to $38,500 by February 10 is more than 75%.

Buyers needed to go above $50k before January 8. Now it is necessary to form a bridgehead for a new rally before the halving in April. Trading volumes on spot bitcoin-ETFs are not bad. But the outflows from the Grayscale fund are very large, which makes many investors nervous.

If the trading range of $40,000 – $44,500 with an upward bias is maintained until February 10. Then the probability of a drop to $38,500 will be greatly reduced. According to BitRiver’s forecasts, buyers need to pass the $44,500 level. In order to level out the “bearish” sentiment. We follow the news on ETFs, the dynamics of the dollar index and the S&P 500.

Among the key events in the week that may affect the dynamics of the dollar and cryptocurrencies: the publication of data on U.S. GDP (January 25) and U.S. inflation (January 26). Bitcoin belongs to the class of risky assets, so it is sensitive to the value of DXY.

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The Celestia blockchain is what it is. Why its token has grown in value tenfold

Our experts tell you what you need to know about the Celestia modular blockchain and what’s driving demand for its native token

The price of the native blockchain token Celestia (TIA) reached an all-time high of $20 on January 15. In less than three months of its existence, the token has increased in price almost tenfold. And the demand for it continues to be supported by the excitement around new projects in the network ecosystem.

Celestia Labs, the company behind the development of the Celestia blockchain network, raised $55 million in October 2022, led by venture capital firms Bain Capital Crypto and Polychain Capital. Following this investment round, Celestia’s project achieved “unicorn” status with a $1 billion valuation.

The venture capital arm of the Coinbase exchange also participated in its funding. And the cryptocurrency arm of major market maker Jump Trading, Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital and a number of other venture capitalists and business angels. Prior to that, Celestia developers raised $1.5 million in a seed round in 2021. And in October 2023, the OKX crypto exchange announced its investment in this project.

Modular blockchain

Celestia Labs has been led by Mustafa Al-Bassam. As a 2019 PhD student in Computer Science at University College London, he published a paper titled “LazyLedger”. And in which he presented a radical rethinking of the principles of blockchain. He described the possibility of separating the various functions of a distributed ledger. And in particular, how users request data, into separate “application layers”. A key benefit of this approach would be to minimize the total amount of resources required to run the underlying blockchain.

Al-Bassam is co-authoring three research papers with Ethereum ecosystem co-founder Vitalik Buterin. In one of his 2022 talks, Buterin presented Celestia as a solution for scaling so-called rollups. These rollups leverage such “second-level” solutions in various forms. Such as Optimism or Arbitrum, and with their help users can make much cheaper and faster transactions than in Ethereum at the base level.

Celestia’s primary use case is expected to be offloading the Ethereum blockchain from having to process the massive amount of data being produced by the rapidly growing ecosystem of rollup-based networks. Celestia’s solutions further improve the efficiency of the Ethereum core network. while taking over data storage and streamlining transactions. And then further transferring that data to other blockchains to complete transactions.

Technically, the Celestia blockchain is used exclusively for these needs. It does not perform smart contracts or computations, unlike other blockchain networks. Instead, the Celestia model outsources these functions to rollups or other blockchains. And this is a key component of its flexible, modular design. That said, developers building applications on the Celestia network can combine different elements of its infrastructure while keeping them compatible.

Token launch

To use Celestia for data processing, rollup developers conduct a separate type of transaction on the network. And for which they pay a commission in native tokens – TIA. In September 2023, Celestia developers announced the launch of the token and its distribution as an airdrop to early users of the network. And who showed activity and participated in its testing in the early stages.

During the distribution of 60 million tokens TIA distributed to the wallets of 191 thousand qualified participants of the airdrop. And that amounted to about 6% of their total supply of 1 billion units. More than half of the existing tokens are distributed to early investors and developers. And another 140 million TIAs are allocated to fund future project initiatives. A significant portion of these tokens remain locked: early investors will receive tokens in several stages between October 2024 and October 2025, while developers will receive tokens until October 2026.

The token was listed by Binance, OKX, Bybit, KuCoin and other major crypto exchanges on its launch day on November 1, 2023. According to the results of the first day of trading, the price of TIA was fixed at $2.44 with a capitalization of about $344 million.

Less than three months later, in January 2024, the rate of TIA increased almost 10 times. On January 15, the token reached $20, and the size of its capitalization soared to 3 billion, which put TIA in the top 30 largest existing crypto-assets.

Why TIA token rose in price

Airdrop as a tool for attracting users has not only benefited Celestia itself. Developers of several projects that use its blockchain. They also announced the distribution of their own tokens to those who help Celestia to maintain its work, acting as a so-called transaction validator. And with this they provoked even more demand for the TIA token.

The TIA token allows application developers to use Celestia’s blockchain without having to deploy their own validator network. Thus, those who act as validators by hosting their own tokens in staking. now play an important role in the ecosystem: they ensure that not only Celestia itself works correctly. But also those networks that rely on it for data availability.

Demand for the TIA token, as well as its price, began to skyrocket after two projects announced at the very beginning of 2024. They announced that they would airdrop their own tokens to all those who hold TIA in staking. The first of which was Saga. And its developers announced the distribution of SAGA tokens among 27 thousand participants in the list of those who until December 1, 2023 held in staking from 23 TIA tokens.

The Dymension project team soon announced plans to distribute 20 million DYM tokens to everyone who held at least 1 TIA in staking. The tokens themselves haven’t launched yet. But qualified participants of the distribution are already putting them up for pre-sale on OTC services, where the price of a DYM token reaches almost $5.

Against this background, more and more market participants started buying and placing TIA tokens in staking. And expecting new giveaways from other projects.

Airdrops proved to be an effective marketing tactic for new crypto projects. Projects like Berachain, Monad or Manta, which also rely on the Celestia infrastructure, are expected to launch in 2024. And our experts note that everyone also expects them to distribute tokens.

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US allows Bitcoin ETF for the first time after 10 years of denials

The U.S. SEC has issued a favorable ruling on the launch of Bitcoin ETF from BlackRock and other companies. These exchange-traded funds are expected to open access to cryptocurrency to a wide range of investors and attract new capital

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the launch of 11 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) investing directly in Bitcoin. And will open up access to the largest cryptocurrency in the traditional US financial market and beyond.

The SEC has authorized funds from all applicant companies, including BlacrRock and Fidelity Investments. And to begin trading shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), NASDAQ and Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) starting Jan. 11.

Why a spot bitcoin ETF is important

Various exchange traded funds (ETFs). And including gold, have trillions of dollars in assets under management. In the cryptocurrency community, it is widely believed that even a small percentage of this capital can potentially impact the global crypto market. After the approval of spot Bitcoin ETF, the demand for cryptocurrency should increase: buying shares of the funds implies the delivery of bitcoin as an underlying asset, that is, its direct purchase in the market, affecting the rate.

The decision came a day after SEC  X account (formerly Twitter) posted a false message that the agency had approved the ETF. Minutes after the publication appeared, the regulator said the account had been hacked. This led to sharp fluctuations in the bitcoin exchange rate. Which reacted with sharp jumps to each of the statements.

Regulator has been withholding approval to launch ETFs for more than a decade

Our experts note that back in 2013, twin brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, now owners of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, decided to create the first such fund. In June 2023, the world’s largest management company BlackRock applied for registration of a bitcoin-ETF.

The ruling in favor of bitcoin funds came after Grayscale Investments scored a key victory over the SEC in court. A federal appeals court overturned the SEC’s denial of Grayscale’s application to convert its existing bitcoin trust into a full-fledged ETF. The court called the denial “arbitrary and capricious” because SEC officials were unable to make a compelling argument for banning spot funds. Back in 2021, the SEC approved several ETFs. Which allow investors to speculate on bitcoin futures. But the shares of such ETFs have no direct impact on the bitcoin market.

SEC Chairman Gary Gensler emphasized this in a public statement. According to him, it was the Grayscale case that was the tipping point for the regulator to change its rhetoric. Nevertheless, the agency still “does not endorse or support bitcoin itself.” Investors, it said, should be wary of the “numerous risks associated with bitcoin and products whose value is tied to the cryptocurrency.”

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What will happen to cryptocurrency in 2024

Our experts talked about the sources of new capital in the cryptocurrency market. And the trends shaping the demand for cryptocurrency

The interest of users in the cryptocurrency market and the demand for cryptoassets are driven by both global expected events and new trends. Our experts told us what exactly could trigger capital inflows into bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in 2024.

Halving and new highs

In 2024, one of the most anticipated events for the crypto industry will take place – bitcoin halving. This term refers to the halving of payments to miners – members of the cryptocommunity who mine cryptocurrency.

Halving is a planned halving of the number of newly issued bitcoins that are created and distributed to miners who perform verification and validation of transactions on the network. The procedure is embedded in bitcoin’s program code to ensure that the total number of coins in the network never exceeds 21 million units.

Bitcoin halving occurs about once every four years. The event reduces the inflow of coins to the market by half. But the demand for them at the same time remains unchanged. As a result, there is a shortage of bitcoins, which pushes the cryptocurrency’s rate up. Statistics show that bitcoin updates the absolute maximum value about a year and a half after halving. That is, theoretically, the new peak of the rate will be reached in 2025.

But there are speculations according to which the maximum, contrary to history, can also be registered in 2024. The reason is the likely launch of spot bitcoin-ETFs in the US. The battle of market participants for the approval of the instrument has been going on since 2013. With its appearance, institutional investors’ money may flow into the crypto industry.

New capital sources

The year 2024 has several prerequisites to become favorable for the cryptocurrency market. First, investors are full of positive expectations due to hopes of approval of a bitcoin-ETF by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Market participants expect the emergence of a bitcoin-linked exchange traded fund. And that will push asset managers from the world of traditional finance to embrace cryptocurrencies as another tool to diversify portfolios. This will encourage capital to flow into the cryptocurrency market.

Secondly, we can expect to see continued growth in interest in Ordinals, which are now available not only on the bitcoin network. But also in other blockchains. This gaining popularity, which was born in the bitcoin blockchain, is now spreading to other networks as well.

The interest in the new standard also facilitates the flow of capital into the crypto market and contributes to its growth. Above all, the positive impact stimulates interest in bitcoin. And whose blockchain has become the progenitor of the “ordinals”.

The year 2024 could also be a watershed year for the NFT market as a whole. And which has long been dominated by networks such as Ethereum or Solana. In November 2023, the volume of NFT trades in the bitcoin network exceeded that of Ethereum. And this was made possible by the emergence of Ordinals. This will probably be one of the major trends for the NFT market in 2024 – the flow of capital and users to the bitcoin network.

The third trend in 2024 will be the boom of ecosystems and so-called Layer 2 applications. These are focused on infrastructure creation and development of blockchain tokenomics. It is worth paying attention to the DePIN concept. The emergence of new concepts and applications like these. It could help stimulate adoption and demand for cryptocurrency by a wide range of users.

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