KTX Finance Market Edge š
Summary of Key Crypto Market Developments in Jan 2024
TLDR š
- The ETF was real all along! How did the market react?
- Weāve entered choppy waters! Batten down the hatches!
- Barry Silbertās big week is turning into a bad month for BTC holders!
ETF ā Extremely Traumatic Feeling š
January 11th 2024 was the day most Crypto participants have been salivating over for a long time. It was a signal of legitimacy, that all weāve collectively worked for wasnāt for nothing.
The 6 ETFs were approved and the Crypto space all cheered, until they stopped.
Sell the news was definitely the flavor of the day for traders as prices seemed to tumble the day after the approvals, with BTC dropping around 10% on the12th.
So where does that leave the market right now?
A lot of different personalities on CT are calling for choppy markets for the next couple months and as we know, nothing goes up in a straight line forever.
But while that may be the case, letās run through some of the assets we support to check in and see how theyāve done recently and what upcoming catalysts they have!
Starting off with the king, Bitcoin!
Bitcoin: The Institutional Asset š
Bitcoin has had a rough go of it so far this month with the ETF topping it out at around $49K. The day after saw BTC dropping 10% in value followed by a further 7% fall.
Like a lot of traders know, markets usually take periods of respite to consolidate and load up for future moves so many hope that is whatās occurring!
That the ETF drop was so reminiscent of the Coinbase IPO is not lost on us but there is one thing that differentiates those 2 scenarios: The Halving.
Historically this is a huge time of year for BTC and the halving generally brings a period of upwards price action.
This time, itās further bolstered by institutional buying for their ETFs. Thatās definitely an edge BTC bulls havenāt had before in conjunction with the halving so who knows what might happen!
But what BTC holders didnāt expect to contend with was Barry Silbert dumping all over their heads!
He has been dumping large tranches of BTC the past couple of days, which some think has helped this downmove plunge even harder than normal.
Itās worth keeping an eye on those flows as when that selling dries up and we have the halving ahead of us, wellā¦who knows what could happen?
Although we can surely speculate, history tells us that BTC usually runs pretty hard after a halving and the direction tends to be up and to the right! With less than 100 days left, countdowns can begin and imaginations can wander to the tune of bull market valuations for this cycle.
Ethereum: ETF soon? ā
Ethereum, like every other asset, followed BTC on its descent down after the ETF approval, but prior to that was a different story!
The ETH/BTC pairing was on every traderās lips because it was really starting to run hard, gaining 24% in 3 days leading up to the ETF.
It had been a while since we had a sharp ETH run against BTC and history shows that this movement usually predicates a market top.
Unfortunately for Crypto holders, that is exactly what occurred as ETH has since pulled back roughly 20% from Jan 12th.
But like Bitcoin, there is a light at the end of this choppy tunnel!
ETH has various chain improvements coming, like the Dencun upgrade planned for March this year, along with some high-level projects being built on them like Eigenlayer, that is drawing a lot of attention to the token.
Plus there are rumors of an ETH ETF being talked about so maybe that could bring about more institutional eyes that could bring some positive price action!
Solana: The Underdog š
Solana has been the market darling for a while now as it began its run from the $8 lows to its most recent high of $125.
Itās had a lot of recent narratives to run on including just how good and beaten down its chart had been plus they have an incredibly strong developer community who have completely revamped how users are viewing Solana.
But also, Solanaās protocols led the way with the most recent market craze: Points Systems.
With every tokenless protocol using points, itās safe to say that was a worthwhile endeavor and a great market ploy.
On top of their innovative add-on to airdrops for users, Solana has been a primary destination for meme coin traders! Itās had the same fervor as mainnet but with cheaper launches and fees, plus Solana has had a few of the most hyped meme coin launches in recent times with BONK and WIF chief among them.
SOL has also been rumored to be in the ETF discussion which would cap off a crazy year for the token!
Chainlink: Is This Their Year? āļø
LINK has had its time in the sun before and has recently been flying under the radar.
Its price action has been relatively stable in the face of the ETF drop which is testament to the diamond. But with numerous fundamentals in line for the future, LINK will stay on the forefront of many investorsā minds.
To be in the know on all things Chainlink, check out this great video here by the Bankless Nation with ChainLinkGod.
Arbitrum: L2s On the Move š
Arbitrum was one of the L2s that had a successful run up this year after having been consolidating since the tokenās launch! ARB is considered to be a bluechip token and a great way for users to get beta exposure to ETH.
Arbitrum helps scale Ethereum by way of Optimistic Rollup technology and has had a robust ecosystem since launch.
It has recently hit a high of $2.40 with that being over a 200% move from the September bottom!
Keep an eye out for this ecosystem in the next week or soā¦ š š
BNB: Homebase š
As BNB was our initial homebase, it only seems right to check in on the token and see how itās held up recently.
Binance has been in the media the past few months, for various reasons, but the token has held up well!
December was a good month as it went from $227 to a high of $338 before coming down with the rest of the market. Since then BNB is only down 13% which is comparatively better than most other tokens right now!
This December uptrend was likely attributed to the attention the Binance Launchpool has been getting. With hot new projects like Manta Network and AltLayer debuting there, it was only natural for this to a great catalyst.
Weāre sure BNB will continue to grow as a chain and the resiliency of the token is testament to that!
Mantle: Our mETH Dealer šµ
Our resident dealer of mETH and the home of most of our TVL, we come to Mantle.
Mantle has had a lot of positive press recently with their mETH launch and an expansion of their ecosystem, having brought over projects like Merchant Moe (Trader Joe team).
This has led to an appreciation in price for MNT from a low of $.30 in October to $.85 on ETF day. Since then, MNT is down almost 30% which is generally where people start to get interested in buying again!
MNT has done very well since the TGE, and it will continue to grow as the ecosystem matures, and weāll be there to help make that happen!
Wrap Up š
We still have a few months left until the halving and odds are that there will be a fair amount of chop between now and then! If youāre a directional trader, thatās music to your ears!
Youāll be able to run up the bag from level to level until things get more volatile the closer we get to news catalysts.
If you were wondering why we included the assets that we did in this article, then boy do we have a nice surprise for you.
Watch our socials cause as Barry Silbert would say, itās gonna be a big year.
