Macro tundra harsh
What's being bought and sold*
TOP TRENDING ASSETS
*Trading activity in the past 24 hours on the Uphold platform, as of 8 a.m. 23rd December 2024.
The combined total of buy and sell percentages can exceed 100% due to customers who engage in both buying and selling the same asset within the 24-hour time frame.
Don’t invest in crypto unless you're prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 minutes to learn more.
What’s up
Inflation Rears Its Ugly Headwind
Illustrative of the risk-off mood that swept across markets last week in the wake of hawkish Fed projections: the dollar rallied while the yield on the 10-year-treasury note rose 14 basis points.
"The Fed is stuck between a rock and a hard place," Andre Dragosch, a Bitwise researcher, told CoinDesk.
That's because financial conditions have continued to tighten despite three straight rate cuts since September.
"Real-time measures of inflation have re-accelerated," Dragosch said.
What's down
HYPE Balloon Punctures
Total crypto assets were in the red as of Monday morning with Bitcoin holding on to a $96K handle. The No. 1 coin was down 1.1% over 24 hours as of 7:53 a.m. (EST). Ethereum, second-biggest crypto, was roughly $3,350, having lost 1.3%.
Most coins within the ranks of the Top 30 were down likewise, 1%-2%.
Meanwhile, Hyperliquid (HYPE), the speed-centric DEX, has plunged. HYPE had raced to an all-time high of nearly $35 as of early yesterday.
Some cheerleaders are touting HYPE as "the decentralized Binance" and the community is still basking in the glow of an airdrop that has been called the biggest in history, in terms of valuation, surpassing a prior mark set by Uniswap in 2020.
HYPE spent the past day and a half shedding 21%, surrending its $30 handle along the way. HYPE still has a market capitalization of $9.2 billion, making it the 22nd-largest digital asset, according to CoinGecko.
What's next
Stockings Stuffed With Bitcoin Forecasts
Oh those pundits are relentless with their predictions. We've made a list, and checked it twice, but it's still not clear where Bitcoin is heading.
Perma-bull Anthony Pompliano predicts a nice run in 2025. "As large pools of capital come in to buy a finite-supply asset, the price should continue to go up,” Pompliano said, per The Daily Hodl.
A naughty scenario is not off the table. If past pullbacks (which occur after seven weeks of upside) are any guide, BTC could be on the brink of a retrace back toward $80K, said Rekt Capital.
Some bulls (Matrixport, for example) are predicting BTC will reach $160K by the end of next year. Fundstrat's Tom Lee predicted BTC could hit $250K by then.
An experiment with nine chatbots, including Google's Gemini, OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft's Copilot, revealed a range of BTC forecasts marked for Dec. 31, 2025, from $95K on the low end to $180K on the high end.
In the near term, based on historical chart patterns, the largest crypto could see another week of correction, according to Cointelegraph.
Do not count out a BTC recovery, back above $100K, just in time for Christmas. It remains very much possible, based on fractal patterns examined by analyst Elja Boom.
Of a trend reversal producing an upside surprise, Boom said: "We have seen this before."
(Note to readers: Unboxed will be on a holiday hiatus for the rest of this week and part of next, returning on Jan. 2, 2025. We wish everybody a Happy & Healthy New Year!)
