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Bitcoin (BTC) has failed to rebound sharply following the fall on Dec. 11, suggesting selling pressure on relief rallies. Glassnode data shows that short-term holders (STHs), entities holding Bitcoin for 155 days or less, sent $1.93 billion worth of Bitcoin to exchanges on Dec. 11 and $2.08 billion on Dec. 12. The last time single-day selling crossed the $2 billion mark was way back in June 2022. This shows that speculators are in a hurry to dump their holdings.

However, lower levels are attracting buyers. Trading resource Material Indicators suggested that “institutional sized” bids could be seen but added that it was unclear if it was accumulation or a short-term trading opportunity with dips being purchased and rallies being sold.

Cointelegraph contributor Marcel Pechman analyzed derivatives data and said that Bitcoin remains on track to hit $50,000 despite the recent correction. He added that chances of “cascading liquidations” were low as the correction seems to have been “primarily driven by the spot market.”

What are the important support levels on Bitcoin that are likely to hold? Could altcoins also start a relief rally? Let’s analyze the charts of the top 10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin has been holding above the 20-day exponential moving average ($40,870), but the bulls have failed to start a strong relief rally. This suggests hesitation to buy at higher levels.

AVAX, the native token of the Avalanche ecosystem has surprised the market, posting double-digit gains amid a drawback in the wider crypto space. AVAX token smashed through the $40 barrier on Dec.12 to reach an intra-day high of $43. At the time of publication, the layer 1 token trades at $38, up 12% over the last 24 hours and 123% over the last 30 days.

AVAX’s market cap soars 341% in two months

The latest rally has seen Avalanche’s total market value grow more from $3.25 billion when the recovery started in mid-October to the current value of $14.35 billion. This represents an increase of over $341% in just two months.

This is $1.06 billion more than Dogecoin’s $13.29 billion, flipping it to secure the ninth position on the CoinMarketCap ranking.

AVAX’s market capitalization has also increased by 200% over the last 12 months, from $4.04 billion recorded in December 2022.

AVAX is not the only crypto soaring within the Avalanche ecosystem. JOE (JOE) — the native token of Avalanche’s decentralized exchange Trader Joe, and QI – the native token of Avalanche’s liquid staking protocol Benqi, are also surging, with 5% and 20% gains respectively over the last 24 hours.

Avalanche (AVAX) appears to be one of the few major cryptocurrencies to buck the recent crypto decline, posting a phenomenal 79% weekly gain as others have declined.

Some analysts believe this is due to recent partnership announcements and a rise in trading volumes and total value locked, while others claim there’s been a shift in how altcoins are valued.

While Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) saw a 6% nosedive on Dec. 11, AVAX gained 13.6% in the last 24 hours, per CoinGecko data.

Ryan Mcmillin, the chief investment officer at Merkle Tree Capital, told Cointelegraph that much of the excitement around AVAX could be due to traditional financial heavyweights JPMorgan and Citi partnering with the Avalanche Foundation for their real-world asset tokenization initiatives.

“More recently, the strength of AVAX looks to be associated with a spike in daily transactions from around $200,000 to $4.5 million over the last couple of days. Daily active addresses have also seen a solid trend to the upside,” Millin added.

Nonfungible token (NFT) entrepreneur Wylie Aronow has confirmed he isn’t ready to return to Yuga Labs, the NFT firm he co-founded, despite making “steady progress” with his health.

“I’m not ready to come back to even part-time work. I have to ensure I’m around for a long time, for those who need me,” Aronow said on Dec. 11 in addressing rumors of a potential return.

“My point is, while I’m making steady progress with my health, there’s still some pretty wild swings, and this is a marathon for me.”

Aronow explained that some days he’s ready to throw himself into the “deep end,” while on other days he feels he needs to be “wheel-chaired” to an emergency room.

Aronow, also known as Gordon Goner, took leave of absence in late January to following a congestive heart failure diagnosis. In the same announcement, Wylie rejected rumors that Yuga Labs used neo-Nazi and racist imagery, referring to them as “lies.”

Bitcoin (BTC) closed last week with gains of 9.55%, but started the new week on a weak note, falling near $40,500. The sharp correction in Bitcoin also caused liquidations in several altcoins. According to CoinGlass data, cross-crypto long liquidations for Dec. 11 were more than $300 million.

The sharp fall does not change the trend in Bitcoin and altcoins, as corrections are a part and parcel of any uptrend. Generally, vertical rallies are followed by sharp pullbacks, which shake out the weaker hands and allow long-term investors to buy more at lower levels.

The corrections are unlikely to stretch longer due to several bullish catalysts in 2024. Analysts expect one or more Bitcoin exchange-traded funds to receive regulatory approval in January, which could be a game changer. That will be followed by Bitcoin halving in April, and finally, expectations of a rate cut by the United States Federal Reserve could boost risky assets. Goldman Sachs anticipates the Fed to start cutting rates in the third quarter of 2024.

What are the important levels that could arrest the fall in Bitcoin and altcoins? Let’s analyze the charts to find out.

S&P 500 Index price analysis

The bulls have successfully held the S&P 500 Index (SPX) above the breakout level of 4,541 for the past several days. This suggests that the buyers are trying to flip the level into support.

The Bitcoin (BTC) price recorded a sharp correction on Dec. 11, dipping 7% and wiping out the gains of the past seven days. The strong price correction pushed BTC to a four-month low of $41,329.

A decline in prices of altcoins followed the Bitcoin price correction, many of which recorded double-digit drops. However, market pundits and analysts believe the recent price crash is a part of the ongoing price cycle, and after two months of bullish surge, a correction is no surprise.

Crypto analyst and co-founder of Reflexivity Research Will Clemente said that correction and market volatility shake out weak hands and cool the highly leveraged crypto markets.

Crypto trader Remen wrote in an X (formerly Twitter) post that he believes the recent dump could push altcoins into another bull run. He added that it will take a long period of chops for Bitcoin to resume an uptrend, as Bitcoin dominance has topped out.

The sharp market decline on Monday, Dec. 11, also liquidated over $400 million of crypto-leveraged positions, clearing the market. However, the Bitcoin price has since recovered above $42,000.

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.

Bitcoin (BTC) risks “rolling over” to cancel its latest uptrend, new analysis warns as altcoins surge.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Dec. 9, popular analyst and social media commentator Matthew Hyland flipped cautious on BTC price action.

Bitcoin dominance risks violating key level

Bitcoin bulls kept momentum hot into the end of the week’s Wall Street trading as BTC/USD sealed new 19-month highs of $44,729 on Bitstamp on Dec. 8.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView tracked a subsequent return below the $44,000 mark, with Bitcoin cementing itself in an intraday range.

For Hyland, however, there are more sinister signs that the bull run may be in trouble after robust 60% gains since the start of October.

This week Bitcoin (BTC) price saw a shallow pullback, but the intra-day rally to the $44,000 level is an indication that the bulls are not hurrying to close their positions. Data from the popular HODL Waves metric shows that investors who purchased Bitcoin between December 2020 and December 2021 have been sitting on their coins.

Investors have not been selling into strength because they anticipate higher levels in the future. Asset manager VanEck said in its crypto predictions for 2024 that Bitcoin would make a new all-time high, buoyed by the “political events and regulatory shifts following a U.S. presidential election.”

Bitcoin’s rally of the past few days has also attracted investors to select altcoins, such as Ether (ETH), Cardano (ADA) and Solana (SOL). Research firm Santiment remains positive on the prospects of Bitcoin. It said on Dec. 7 that if FUD increases, Bitcoin could surge to $50,000.

Will Bitcoin find buyers at lower levels and resume its charge to $48,000, or will the action shift to altcoins? Let’s analyze the charts of the top 10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin turned down from $44,500 on Dec. 5, indicating profit-booking by short-term traders. Pullbacks are usually shallow in strong uptrends and do not last long because the bulls eagerly buy the dips.

Bitcoin (BTC) tapped $40,000 after the Dec. 8 Wall Street open as United States employment data shrunk market bets on interest rate cuts.

Bitcoin holds firm as jobs data unsettles U.S. dollar

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView covered the latest BTC price action as risk assets reacted to the latest U.S. inflation cues.

Nonfarm payrolls came in above expectations at 199,000 versus 190,000, while unemployment was lower than forecast at 3.7% versus 3.9%, per an official release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Both suggested that the full impact of Federal Reserve monetary tightening had yet to show itself, and while other data had already captured declining inflation, markets treated the labor figures nervously.

Data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool nonetheless put the odds of anything other than a rate change freeze continuing at next week’s Fed meeting at practically zero.

Bitcoin (BTC) struggled to hold above $43,000 into Dec. 8 as an altcoin surge put Ether (ETH) in the spotlight.

ETH, SOL step up as Bitcoin takes liquidity

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed ongoing BTC price consolidation as ETH/USD added up to 7.6% in around 24 hours.

Bitcoin, having tapped new 19-month highs of $44,490 earlier in the week, now troubled market participants as both ETH and Solana (SOL) stole attention.

Eyeing Bitcoin’s share of the overall crypto market cap, popular analyst Matthew Hyland described recent progress as a potential “false breakout.”

Dominance hit 55.26% on Dec. 6, in line with the BTC price highs — the highest reading since April 2021.