BTC goes back above $43K

Bitcoin shot back above $43K while crypto at large rallied amidst a swirl of familiar catalysts and plot twists.

The Big Ten cadre features high-single-digit performances over 24 hours delivered by a pair of Ethereum rivals, Solana and Avalanche, abetted by another round of memecoin mania. And we're not just talking about BONK, the dog-themed token trending on Solana.

There's also Solana-run Dogwifhat (WIF) as well as a hen-themed asset, Coq Inu (COQ), laying golden eggs on the Avalanche network.

"Traders have increasingly favored [Solana and Avalanche] over Ethereum for their lower transaction fees and faster speeds," CoinDesk said.

Speaking of speedy blockchains, Injective has just now raced to a new record high near $40, hit earlier today. INJ spiked 26.7% in the past 24 hours.  A Cosmos-based layer-1 chain, Injective is positioned as a hothouse for Web3-centric dApps. INJ has been on a heater for the past two weeks, up 142%.

An all-time high was also recorded by SEI, native asset of Sei, a later-1 chain fresh off the news of a partnership with Circle, the company behind USDC, the industry's second largest stablecoin. SEI has more than doubled in the past 30 days. It reached its ATH of $0.354568 earlier this morning.

Meanwhile, BTC, as of Tuesday at 7:03 a.m. (EST), straddled the $42,980 mark on a 24-hour gain of 4.7%.

BlackRock reportedly tweaked its spot BTC ETF filing to include cash redemptions. It’s considered as a regulatory concession, one viewed as potentially improving the odds that the giant money manager’s proposed product wins SEC approval.

The ETF industry runs on "redeem/create" mechanisms; an in-kind redemption structure allows investors to swap ETF shares for BTC. Cash redemptions, as CoinDesk has explained, involve shares swapped for their equivalent cash value. The SEC regards this latter approach as safer.

And in another sign of crypto coming in from the cold, Binance officially settled its case with commodities futures regulators in Chicago. A U.S. federal court in Illinois approved a previously announced settlement in which the world's largest crypto exchange agreed to pay $2.7 billion in penalties in connection with resolving alleged violations of CFTC rules designed to prevent money laundering. Binance's native BNB rose 7.4% to about $252, or roughly where it was last year at this time.

Eurozone inflation dipped slightly in November compared to October. In fact, newly released data shows, month-on-month, inflation fell 0.6%, a slightly faster clip than what was expected (0.5%).

Nevertheless, Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, has been urging markets to be mindful of the possibility that prices remain stubbornly elevated well into the spring if not longer. Eurozone inflation was 2.4% last month. That level is not higher when comparing it to November of 2022. Nor is it any lower. The central bank's target rate is 2%.

Risk assets, including BTC, rallied last week after the U.S. Federal Reserve signaled rate cuts were in the cards. ECB policymakers don't seem inclined to start cutting rates any time soon.

Litecoin pretty much sat out crypto's go-go '23. Might LTC finally be ready to make a move?

In a year in which Bitcoin has gained 160%, LTC only increased 10%, loitering near $70 since the end of October.

Known as “digital silver,” LTC is being more heavily shorted versus other Top 20 coins, Finbold said, citing CoinGlass data. "Exchange volume is only $115 million higher than the shorts, which could soon lead to a short-squeeze event," Finbold said.

A crypto spike earlier this month was followed by a brief retracement Sunday into Monday. But now that dip is now giving way to another quick upswing. As a result, some cryptos are experiencing derivatives-bet imbalances. Roughly $154 million (52.4%) short LTC positions were opened in the past 24 hours.

Long/short mismatches can lead to liquidations, which manifest via squeezes of over-shorted assets. LTC is up 3% in the past 24 hours.