According to Coinmarketcap, the price of bitcoin fell more than 5% in the last 24 hours, reaching just over $41,000 on December 12 (38,600 euros). The main altcoins such as Ethereum, Ripple, Solana and Cardano also experienced drops of more than 5%.
According to the media The Block, ETC Group attributes this drop to an increase in profit taking following the recent rise in Bitcoin. In fact, the trading volume has increased significantly.
88.3% of Bitcoin addresses and 77.6% of Ethereum addresses traded were done so profitably. This is the highest rate of the year.
Holding periods of less than 155 days
ETC Group explains that many of those who have made recent profits are short-term investors, with holding periods of less than 155 days.
Separately, fund transfers from short-term investors to cryptocurrency exchanges are at their highest level since July. The analyst notes that there have also been net outflows from investments in cryptocurrencies, i.e. $18.2 million over the past week, with Bitcoin crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) accounting for the bulk of the outflows at $13.1 million.
Bitcoin analyst Will Clemente explains that this downward correction was not surprising as the price of bitcoin has recently risen sharply to levels near $45,000. Joel Kruger, an analyst at Elmax Group, believes the cascading liquidation of old leveraged positions has intensified bitcoin’s fall.
The strength of the US dollar also had a depressive effect on the market according to the analyst.
Next year will mark another halving of the bitcoin price
Analysts also predict that the price of bitcoin will rebound in the coming days. Bitcoin has surged more than 150% since the start of the year. This upward trend is expected to continue.
Indeed, next year will mark a new halving of the price of bitcoin. The Bitcoin halving is a predetermined event programmed into the cryptocurrency code. Every 210,000 blocks mined, the miner reward is halved. Initially set at 50 bitcoins, it increases to 25, then to 12.5, and so on.
Bitcoin halves approximately every four years, when bitcoin mining remuneration halves. Since its creation in 2009, bitcoin has been halved three times, in 2012, 2016 and 2020. The next halving will therefore take place in 2024.
Source: “ZDNet Korea”