After its brief stint of breaking past the $52,000 mark, bitcoin has plunged to $49,000. This may be a sign of the holidays taking a toll on the market as investors wrap it for the year. Experts say it may also be the uncertainty brought in by the omicron variant into a market already riddled by COVID-19.
At the time of writing this article, BTC is down by 2.84% in the last 24-hours, standing at $48,870, as per CoinMarketCap. Trading activities have almost been muted due to the holidays. Glassnode, a blockchain data firm, revealed that the sovereign supply of bitcoin total coins held outside of exchange reserves reached an all-time high.
The growth comes as the popular cryptocurrency’s long-term holders recorded an increase in their stake reach 74.8%. In comparison, the short-term holders of bitcoin saw a drop to 25.2%.
Glassnode noted that such behavior is typically observed during bitcoin bear markets. These are lengthy periods of coin redistribution from short-term to long-term convictions.
Meanwhile, in the crypto market, stakes are high on the following cryptocurrencies:
Ethereum (ETH) – the world’s second most popular digital asset had made it slightly above the $4,000 mark during Christmas. Now, it’s just below $4,000 and has been down by 2.90% in the last 24-hours.
Binance Coin (BNB) – this cryptocurrency is ideally used to trade and pay fees on the crypto exchange platform Binance. Since its launch in 2017, it has expanded and is now being used for payment processing as well. At the time of writing this article, BNB is $552.
Tether (USDT) – this is actually a stablecoin. Tether is backed by a fiat currency, mainly the US dollar and the Euro. Most people prefer to use USDT as its more consistent than other cryptocurrencies.
Solana (SOL) – with a market cap of over $64 billion, it is priced at $188. Solana provides decentralized finance solutions. It is highly regarded for its incredibly short processing time.
