As Solana climbed to a 20-month high, the price of Bitcoin fell to $42.2K.
Bitcoin (BTC) made a new move on December 26 as analysis of current trends blamed for BTC's price weakness.
BTC price struggles after 2% fall
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD was down 2% on the day as it hit $42,200 – the lowest in nearly a week.
Neither the “Santa rally” nor the holiday surprise greeted the Bitcoin bulls on Christmas, and before the return of Wall Street, the crypto markets continued to struggle.
Commenting on BTC's recent price movements, trading resources argued that material indicators are likely to cause problems for the 2023 deadline.
“Year-end profit taking and tax loss harvesting will strengthen the head for BTC bulls,” said a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Looking to see if they can retrace the 21-day MA before tonight's D candle closes.
Material indicators referenced Bitcoin's 21-day simple moving average, which at the time of writing was at $43,115 — about $400 above the spot price.
Earlier, co-founder Keith Allan emphasized the importance of the 21-day trend as support in recent months.
Up to $43k #Bitcoin enabled!
The 21-day moving average has served as technical support for #BTC since mid-October. It is worth noting that we saw this key level come out on December 17 (IYKYK). The Bulls must rebound to continue the rally. pic.twitter.com/FXhUyMrO4G
— Keith Allan (@KAProductions) December 26, 2023
BTC/USDT order book publications on the biggest global exchange Binance meanwhile did little to boost sentiment, with bids at $37,000 and rising in the second half of December.
On order book trends, popular trader Skew has similarly suggested that market participants are preparing for further declines.
As part of X's post of the day, “Looks like this is where you want to see these shorts sell next, or else you'll be forced to shell out around $43K.”
$BTC Binance/Bybit Open Interest and Deltalol Open Interest are stacked here with strong price compression ~ often leading to volatility.
Looks like they want to keep selling these shorts elsewhere for the holiday low… pic.twitter.com/CSueEXEUU3
— Skew Δ (@52kskew) December 26, 2023
Solana has the lion's share of major discoveries
All major cryptocurrencies haven't been that bad in the recent year-to-date.
Related: BTC Price Up 160% in 2023 — 5 Things to Know in Bitcoin This Week
In contrast to Bitcoin and the major altcoin Ether (ETH), both Binance Coin (BNB) and Solana (SOL) continue to perform impressively weekly.
BNB/USD and SOL/USD are up 19.5% and 56.8% in the past seven days; ETH/USD is also up 1.6%.
Cointelegraph reports that Solana benefited from a combination of gas fees and airdrops as gas hit nearly $126 on Christmas Day — the highest since April 2022.
Previously, traders saw an opportunity to turn on altcoins because the first mover was the speed at which bitcoin was lost.
For Michael Van de Pop, founder and CEO of MN Trading, the evidence shows a significant trend change in the overall altcoin market value.
The total market capitalization of Altcoins is finally breaking out of the 500+ day range,” he told X subscribers on Christmas Eve.
“A retest has been conducted and found enough support, which means Q1 could bring a 2x in the altcoin market capitalization.”
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and business activity involves risk, and readers should do their own research when making a decision.
