The Bitcoin (BTC) rally came to a halt on Thursday, giving way to the crypto majors ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL), which surged to a new 19-month high and led the crypto rally.
Following its meteoric rise to near $45,000 earlier this week, Bitcoin fell to $43,000 during the day, indicating that traders booked profits following the largest cryptocurrency’s breakout from $38,000 a week ago.
At the time of writing, the current value of Bitcoin stands at $43,512.75, accompanied by a 24-hour trading volume of $28,655,616,227.14. This corresponds to a 24-hour price decrease of -1.02% and a 7-day price increase of 14.35%.
Bitcoin traders caught at a crossroads
Santiment, a crypto analytics firm, reported that BTC’s price flattening corresponded with traders increasingly calling for a potential “bull trap,” or a brief gain that draws investors back into the market before a large decline.
“Traders are fearful that crypto markets may be in a bull trap at the moment,” Santiment wrote on X (previously Twitter) on Thursday, citing social media indicators.
According to Santiment, the growing doubt could potentially help propel BTC further beyond $50,000, pressuring shorts who are betting on lower prices.
Additionally, the recent price increase of Bitcoin may not be as simple as it initially appears. Analysts neglected to account for the multiple rejections that took place at $37,500 and $38,500 in the latter part of November. In particular, professional traders and market makers are questioning the market’s resilience in terms of derivatives metrics in light of these rejections.
While the Bitcoin futures premium on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has surged to its highest level in two years, signifying an overabundance of demand for long positions, this trend may not universally be applicable to all client profiles and exchanges.
Prominent traders have, in certain instances, decreased their long-to-short leverage ratio to its most minimal levels in thirty days. This signifies a pattern of profit-taking and a decline in demand for favorable bets exceeding $40,000.
Bitcoin’s ascent to $44,000 seems to be supported by the absence of excessive leverage. Nonetheless, several major participants were caught off guard, concurrently increased demand for put options and reduced leverage longs.
Crypto prices today
The current valuation of cryptocurrencies on a global scale is $1.69 trillion, representing a change of 1.12% over the last twenty-four hours and 88.7% over the past year. Bitcoin currently holds a market cap of $849 billion, signifying 50.27% market dominance. Meanwhile, Stablecoins have a market capitalization of $130 billion, or 7.72% of the total crypto market capitalization.
As of today, Ethereum (ETH) is valued at $2,382.07. The 24-hour trading volume for ETH amounts to $27,001,658,656.69. This reflects a price increase of 5.23 percent over the last 24 hours and 13.82 percent over the last 7 days.
At present, Solana (SOL) is trading at a price of $71.96 on a 24-hour trading volume of $3,657,168,110.68. This reflects a price increase of 18.36% over the past week and 13.40% over the last 24 hours.
In a message on social media site X (previously Twitter), crypto investor and BitMex exchange founder Arthur Hayes hinted at a $100 price objective, predicting a positive weekend for altcoins.
Cardano (ADA) is currently trading at $0.465748 per share, with a 24-hour volume of $556,771,329.89. This reflects a price increase of 22.82% over the past week and 4.08% over the last twenty-four hours.
Today, Shiba Inu (SHIB) is trading at a price of $0.00000991, with a 24-hour volume of $302,587,525.79. This signifies a price escalation of 1.19% over the last 24 hours and 18.59% over the last 7 days.
Finally, according to Bloomberg data, BNB is the only big token still suffering a year-to-date loss. Today’s BNB (BNB) price is $235.98, with a 24-hour trading volume of $992,859,208.77. This reflects a 1.15% increase in the last 24 hours and a 2.96% increase in the last 7 days.
