Bitcoin teeters above the $41,000 mark while Memecoin and Ordinals Frenzy cause congestion in blockchain networks

11 months ago 4

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Bitcoin : Longs continue to get liquidated as the price of bitcoin and other major digital assets gyrate.

(BTC) opened the trading week marginally higher, trading above $41,000. Ether (ETH) was also up slightly, trading above $2,100.

Data from Coinglass have been $103.5 million in liquidations of token-tracked futures in the past 12 hours, and $95 million of them have been longs, or bets on higher prices. Of the $103.5 million in total liquidations, $33 million in BTC positions were liquidated, with $29 million of those being long BTC positions.

Lucy Hu, a Senior Analyst with Hong Kong-based digital asset management firm Metalpha says the broader market continues to hold up quite well despite the recent Ledger hack with rate cuts on the horizon and things like ordinals driving more interest in bitcoin.

“The massive Ledger hack did swing some sentiment in the DeFi space and raises important questions on wallet security,” she said in an email interview. “Besides, the stellar rise of BTC Ordinals continues to fuel enthusiasm for Bitcoin miners, who have been heavily rewarded. We expect the long-term growth momentum of BTC as halving is near, to remain on track.”

Predictions still optimistic

Despite bitcoin’s current correction phase, end-of-year predictions for 2024-2025 still remain optimistic, especially when compared to last year’s dour predictions of $10-12k bitcoin.

In a recent end-of-year report, Woo Network targets a $75K price point for BTC for “early 2024.” Bitwise, has a similar price target, with the fund predicting that BTC will trade above $80,000.

“Spot BTC ETFs will be approved, and collectively will be the most successful ETF launch of all time,” Bitwise also predicted. “Coinbase’s revenue will double, beating Wall Street expectations by at least 10x.”

Memecoins clogging up Layer-1s

Gas fees are spiking on Ethereum and many layer-1 chains, such as Avalanche, as dozens of new meme coins flood the market.

Avalanche has generated $5 million in fees over the last 24 hours, while Ethereum, with its significantly larger market cap, has generated $13.52 million. BTC seems to touch $48000 soon as per the Fibbonacci.

Arbitrum and Optimism have also seen a large spike in gas fees during the last week.