Decentral Block Post

Bitcoin (BTC) starts a key week for macro markets with a bump as the weekly close gives way to a sharp 7% BTC price correction.

The largest cryptocurrency broke down toward $40,000 in a fresh bout of volatility, reaching its lowest level in a week.

Arguably long overdue, Bitcoin’s return to test support nonetheless caught bullish latecomers by surprise, liquidating almost $100 million in longs.

The snap move provides a rude awakening for BTC investors at the start of a week, which already holds a multitude of potential volatility triggers. These come in the form of United States macro data that will immediately precede the Federal Reserve’s next decision on interest rate policy.

A bumper collection of numbers coming in swift succession means anything can happen on risk assets — and crypto is no exception.

Crypto investors have been moving their assets away from crypto exchange HTX (formerly Huobi) following a Nov. 22 exploit that saw the exchange pause its services and lose a total of $30 million. 

Between Nov. 25 — the day that HTX resumed its services — and Dec. 10, the exchange had some $258 million in net outflows, according to data from DefiLlama.

DefiLlama data shows HTX’s reserves comprise 32.3% Bitcoin (BTC) and 31.8% Tron (TRX). TRX is the native currency of the Tron network, a blockchain launched by Sun in 2017.

At the time of publication, HTX is the 16th largest crypto exchange by daily trading volume, with a total of $1.6 billion in trading volume in the last 24 hours, per CoinMarketCap data.

Following HTX’s restart on Nov. 25, Sun promised any affected HTX users that they would be fully compensated for the hot wallet losses and said a probe was underway.

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) briefly fell below $41,000 on Dec. 11 at 2:15 am UTC, following a sudden 6.5% drawdown from $43,357 to as low as $40,659 in a span of 20 minutes.

At the time of publication, Bitcoin was trading slightly up from the local low at $41,960, TradingView data shows. 

Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, also declined abruptly, falling more than 8.9% in the same time frame. The price of ETH has since stabilized and is trading for $2,233, down 5.3% on the day.

Other large-cap crypto assets, including BNB (BNB), XRP (XRP) and Solana (SOL), also posted losses. 

According to data from CoinGlass, the brief drop caused more than $270 million worth of long positions to be liquidated. The decline also wiped out some $1.2 billion in open interest on BTC, which is currently sitting around $17.9 billion.

A Solana-based dog-themed memecoin called Bonk (BONK) has now become the third-largest memecoin by market capitalization, surging past that of fellow memecoin Pepe (PEPE) on Dec. 8.

Bonk’s recent price growth — 370% in the last month — has seen its market cap grow to $762 million, compared with Pepe’s current $675 million market cap, according to CoinGecko data.

In the past 30 days, BONK has grown from $0.0000028 to $0.000012 as traders rushed to capitalize on a new wave of interest in the Solana ecosystem.

Bonk’s rapid uptick in price also outpaced the growth of other more well-established dog memecoins such as Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogecoin (DOGE), which posted respective gains of 20% and 35% in the same time frame.

At the time of publication, Bonk has become the third-largest memecoin, coming in behind DOGE and SHIB — the largest and second-largest — which command market caps of $6 billion and $14.4 billion, respectively.

The S&P 500 Index (SPX) achieved its highest close of the year last week, and Bitcoin (BTC) also hit a new 52-week high, indicating that risky assets remain strong going into the final few days of the year. 

Some analysts believe Bitcoin is done with its rally in the short term and may roll over. Popular analyst and social media commentator Matthew Hyland cautioned in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that a drop in Bitcoin’s dominance below 51.81% could signal that the uptrend has ended “along with a likely top put in.”

Usually, the first leg of the rally of a new bull market is driven by the leaders, but after a significant move, profit-booking sets in and traders start to look at alternative opportunities. Although Bitcoin has not rolled over, several altcoins have started to move higher, signaling a potential shift in interest.

Could Bitcoin continue its up-move and hit $48,000 in the next few days? Will that boost interest in select altcoins? Let’s look at the charts of the top 5 cryptocurrencies that may remain strong in the near term.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin has been consolidating in a tight range near the minor resistance at $44,700, indicating that the bulls are not rushing to the exit as they anticipate another leg higher.

The S&P 500 Index (SPX) achieved its highest close of the year last week, and Bitcoin (BTC) also hit a new 52-week high, indicating that risky assets remain strong going into the final few days of the year. 

Some analysts believe Bitcoin is done with its rally in the short term and may roll over. Popular analyst and social media commentator Matthew Hyland cautioned in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that a drop in Bitcoin’s dominance below 51.81% could signal that the uptrend has ended “along with a likely top put in.”

Usually, the first leg of the rally of a new bull market is driven by the leaders, but after a significant move, profit-booking sets in and traders start to look at alternative opportunities. Although Bitcoin has not rolled over, several altcoins have started to move higher, signaling a potential shift in interest.

Could Bitcoin continue its up-move and hit $48,000 in the next few days? Will that boost interest in select altcoins? Let’s look at the charts of the top 5 cryptocurrencies that may remain strong in the near term.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin has been consolidating in a tight range near the minor resistance at $44,700, indicating that the bulls are not rushing to the exit as they anticipate another leg higher.