Last night, the US stock market opened normally with a general rise, and the ETF data for BTC and Ethereum also came out today, showing normal inflows. Therefore, under these circumstances, the weekend market is still quite anticipated, as it can generally be seen as a signal of warming and rising. Currently, the market is still fluctuating within a range. Once there is a decline, the market will quickly bounce back, which proves that the funds from the U.S. have already started to recover slowly. The upcoming trend, without any significant negative news, will likely walk in a warming state towards the upward range because the negative news about the Fed's rate cuts in 2025 has mostly been digested. Although this week is the last Sunday of 2024 and there is also the expiration of 4.2 billion dollars in options, investors will likely choose to postpone rather than immediately sell off, so this wave of delivery will not have a significant impact on the market. Then to show you the data, BTC has a net inflow of 475 million dollars, and Ethereum has a net inflow of 117 million dollars. Ethereum has almost bought back all the outflow data from two days before Christmas in just one day, but Bitcoin still lags a bit. This shows that institutions are gradually becoming interested in Ethereum. Although Ethereum's price is still far from its historical high, the trend has already shown that institutions and investors are more optimistic about its sentiment. If Ethereum can maintain this inflow, I believe its price will rise, and the long-awaited altcoin season will soon be seen with Ethereum's push!
Currently, Bitcoin's performance is still quite tangled, mainly because last night the three major US stock indices had minimal fluctuations: Dow Jones +0.07%, S&P +0.04%, Nasdaq +0.05%. This is basically an order of magnitude smaller than usual. Bitcoin's volatility was also small after the US stock market opened, with a peak of 9.66w and a low of around 9w5, with a maximum amplitude of only about 1000 dollars. Bitcoin's trend is consistent with the US stock market; after all, at the end of the year, these institutions and listed companies, whether cashing out for the holidays or balancing their books, have some impact on Bitcoin, but it doesn’t significantly affect the trend. The end-of-year market, apart from the monotonous upward trend in 2020, has been a fluctuating market in other years, with real breakthroughs typically occurring in January of the following year. Therefore, there is no need to pay too much attention to Bitcoin’s market in the next few days; the January market will certainly not be bad, as Trump will be in office on January 20.
Apart from platform coins, the rest of the altcoins are basically performing quite mediocre, especially BGB and Gate's GT, which have achieved historical new highs. Previously, after BNB and HTX reached new highs, a new altcoin market started. The early performance of platform coins is also, in some sense, an early performance of the rotation in altcoin markets. Currently, it is the performance of second-tier platform coins; does this mean it will be crazier than the previous round?
Ethereum will eventually lead altcoins out of their predicament and usher in a glorious moment for altcoins!
As an indicator of altcoins, Ethereum also has many altcoin ecosystems built around it, and its ecosystem has long been well-established in the market and is operational. This includes a flourishing on-chain ecosystem!
Although there are many potential altcoins in the market that sometimes temporarily exceed Ethereum in popularity, in the long run, Ethereum still holds the most stable position as the second-in-command in the crypto world.
Among them, the most representative are SOL, Sui, AVAX, and other public chains in the same sector, which have not performed much recently. However, these ecosystems ultimately belong to their own chains, while Ethereum has already surpassed many ecosystems.
Now with the ETF funding entrance, Ethereum becomes more worthy of long-term holding advantages. Taking recent whales, institutions, and listed companies into account, many wave whales have frequently traded at around 3500, and even institutions are willing to raise their own costs to accumulate a large amount of Ethereum. Perhaps this is signaling to retail investors that once certain conditions and triggers occur, it may be too late to get on board with Ethereum.
The year 2025 will be a time for Ethereum to shine. Currently, the staking of ETF spot is still not allowed, and ETFs cannot stake, including Grayscale's Ethereum, which also cannot stake. This explains one of the reasons why the inflow of funds into BTC's ETF has always been significantly higher than that of Ethereum.
Once Trump comes to power and changes the policies, it is highly likely that staking will be allowed. After all, apart from some altcoins, the largest holding Trump has is Ethereum. After staking is launched, not only can the annualized rate improve, but there will also be dividends to earn interest. The target audience for this will be the large holders of Ethereum, including institutions, and of course, the subsequent evolution may also include listed companies.
Therefore, the launch of staking will most affect the Ethereum ecosystem, especially the staking sector. Currently, the standout altcoins in the staking sector, LDO and SSV, are good choices. I believe that with the launch of the staking function, the dividends that can be earned will also include those from secondary altcoins!
Since the market conditions began in March-April, Ethereum has been looked down upon by retail investors. However, has anyone noticed that Ethereum's decline has also caused altcoins to be stuck for nearly eight months, suffering from the bloodsucking and selling pressure brought by VC coins? Then, in November, when Ethereum returned to its yearly high and broke through 4000, most altcoins followed with a 2-3 times increase.
Therefore, without the increase of Ethereum, altcoins will find it difficult to have a breakthrough. The staking function of Ethereum's ETF is coming soon, and Ethereum's upgrade is also speeding up. So everyone is looking forward to the altcoin season arriving soon!
