Just before the end of the year, the crypto market continues to take a beating. After the initial green start of the last week of 2021, prices have only been going down.
This rout further extended to late Wednesday and early Thursday when Bitcoin price dipped further just under $45,900 and Ether to about $3,585. As of writing, BTC/USD has been trading above $47k while Ether is also over $3,700.
While the leading cryptocurrency is down 31.6% from its $69,000 all-time high early last month, Ether is only down about 24%. This month, however, Bitcoin is down 17.5% compared to ether’s almost 20%, according to Skew.
But while Bitcoin managed to record losses less than Ether, the latter’s 2021 gains at 407% are still greater than Bitcoin’s only 60%.
“It’s not really that clear to the world at large, to the mainstream, that what’s really happening with Bitcoin, with Ethereum, with this whole bucket of technologies…is really a revolution in software development,” said Coinlist CEO Graham Jenkin in an interview. “Blockchain technology represents a totally new way to build, distribute and run software.”
The largest cryptocurrency has shown a positive correlation with the S&P 500 Index this year. But this week, S&P 500 rose to new highs while Bitcoin has only been recording losses.
With the subdued price action, the cryptocurrency’s volatility has also decreased. Even during the winter festive season and weekends, which have seen thin volume, the cryptocurrency has failed to have any wild swings.
“A lot of traders have made life-changing money in 2021 and have been waiting to take profits until after the turn of the year to delay tax payments until 2023,” said Sergio Silva, sales director at Fireblocks. “That’s another source of selling pressure that could cascade into additional weakness in January.”
But despite the ongoing weakness in the crypto market, exchange-traded fund investors (ETF) are still putting money into these products.
The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO), the first Bitcoin futures ETF that started trading in October, has attracted more than $40 million in December for the third straight monthly inflows.
Investors have also poured in $6.5 million into another futures ETF, the Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BTF), since the end of last month, its third consecutive month of inflows as well.
2021 belongs to altcoins and not Bitcoin or Ether. The biggest gainers this year have been the NFT pay-to-earn (P2E) game Axie Infinity (AXS) whose gains have been more than 15,900%, and the NFT-based virtual world The Sandbox (SAND), whose returns have been 15,550%. AXS -0.69% Axie Infinity / USD AXSUSD $ 94.86
-$0.65-0.69% Volume 153.91 m Change -$0.65 Open $94.86 Circulating 60.91 m Market Cap 5.78 b 17 h Bitcoin and Ether Dump More Going Into Year-End, ETH Killers Showing Great Momentum 1 d South Korean Exchange Suspends Withdrawals to External Wallets, Govt. Reaches Out to Apple and Google to Block P2E Apps 2 d Axie Infinity Daily Revenue Plunges Over 94% from Peak as Daily Active Addresses Drops by 72% SAND 2.42% The Sandbox / USD SANDUSD $ 5.96
$0.142.42% Volume 1.12 b Change $0.14 Open $5.96 Circulating 919.5 m Market Cap 5.48 b 17 h The Sandbox Game Is Migrating to Ethereum Sidechain Polygon and Launching A DAO in 2022 17 h Bitcoin and Ether Dump More Going Into Year-End, ETH Killers Showing Great Momentum 6 d Is This The Beginning of the Santa Rally? Markets Jump in Asia Session
Ethereum killers have been another good play of 2021, with Polygon (13,860%), Terra (12,960%), Fantom (12,260%), and Solana (9,320%) leading this rally.
MATIC 0.54% Polygon / USD MATICUSD $ 2.51
$0.010.54% Volume 1.67 b Change $0.01 Open $2.51 Circulating 7.16 b Market Cap 17.99 b 14 h StarkWare Proposes to Deploy Aave on its ZK-Rollup L2 StarkNet 17 h The Sandbox Game Is Migrating to Ethereum Sidechain Polygon and Launching A DAO in 2022 17 h Bitcoin and Ether Dump More Going Into Year-End, ETH Killers Showing Great Momentum LUNA 0.41% Luna Coin / USD LUNAUSD $ 0.01
$0.000.41% Volume 0 Change $0.00 Open $0.01 Circulating 1.71 m Market Cap 13.71 K 17 h Bitcoin and Ether Dump More Going Into Year-End, ETH Killers Showing Great Momentum 2 d UST Grows 55x to Become the 4th Largest Stablecoin, Terra DeFi Ecosystem Amasses $18B in Assets 6 d Is This The Beginning of the Santa Rally? Markets Jump in Asia Session FTM -1.69% Fantom / USD FTMUSD $ 2.11
-$0.04-1.69% Volume 479.78 m Change -$0.04 Open $2.11 Circulating 2.55 b Market Cap 5.38 b 17 h Bitcoin and Ether Dump More Going Into Year-End, ETH Killers Showing Great Momentum 3 d Bitcoin Is Back Above $51k and Ether $4,100 as The Cryptocurrency Market Goes Green 3 w ETHBTC Hits New 2021 High, Dogecoin and Ethereum Price Leading Google Trends in 2021 SOL -2.05% Solana / USD SOLUSD $ 170.75
-$3.50-2.05% Volume 1.31 b Change -$3.50 Open $170.75 Circulating 309.48 m Market Cap 52.85 b 17 h Bitcoin and Ether Dump More Going Into Year-End, ETH Killers Showing Great Momentum 1 w Bitcoin and Ether Breaks Trend With Outflows While Altcoins Continue to See Inflows 1 w Crypto Outliers: Terra (LUNA) Amasses $16.9 Bln & Surpass BSC, Avalanche (AVAX) Aims for 1 Million Daily Transactions
“While Bitcoin showed strength in 2021, we've seen a constant stream of capital trickling down into altcoins,” Arcane Research wrote in a note. The firm's analysts predict the strongest momentum in tokens related to GameFi and the metaverse, along with “ETH-killers” targeting Ethereum.
