🔗🐳Chainlink has retraced in the second half of December, like the vast majority of crypto has. Interestingly, though, their key active whales that hold between 1M-10M LINK have accumulated 3.58M coins (worth $76.9M) in just the past 3 days. 👀

📊 In the final days of 2024, trading volume is way down across crypto sectors. Overall, there has been -64% less trading in the past week compared to the previous week (which included Bitcoin's all-time high).

The trading downtrend of trading, particularly among speculative altcoins, is not a surprising development. With the holidays here and traders getting their year-end finances in order, the final week of December is often one of the least active times of each year.

With all of this said, if whales continue showing their strong accumulation trend, the lack of retail participation may actually lead to at least one final big unexpected 2024 pump while retail pays little attention.

📺 In the final @santimentfeed This Week in Crypto show of 2024, we discuss the important whale behavior and crowd's 'paralysis' as markets chop. Is a retrace inevitable, or is hodling safe? We explore all of the top metrics! 👇
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABi6atEt_9c

🐳💸 After the post-Christmas market-wide dip, crypto markets are seeing an encouraging trend of whales moving stablecoins to exchanges. According to the @santimentfeed top CEX deposits dashboard, there have been 7 different @binance deposits worth at least $9M in the past 24 hours alone, including one worth $50M (2.33% of the entire supply).

These $FDUSD moves are partly for the new Bioprotocol $BIO launchpool in order to farm the altcoin. Whenever there is a new project in the launchpool, we tend to see a wave of $BNB and stablecoins being locked in order to successfully farm them.

Regardless, when this dashboard is being dominated by stablecoin deposits to exchanges, it's a strong sign that whales are gearing up for some purchasing, which can push up prices market-wide. Though it's not a guarantee that these whales plan to put this dry powder to use right away, consider this a bullish sign as 2024 sees its final days. 😎

🧑‍💻 Here are crypto's top NFT projects by development. Directional indicators represent each project's ranking rise or fall since last month:

➡️ 1) @decentraland $MANA 🥇
➡️ 2) @flow_blockchain $FLOW 🥈
📈 3) @immutable $IMX 🥉
➡️ 4) @metaplex $MPLX
📉 5) @enjin $ENJ
📈 6) @asi_alliance $FET
📈 7) @originprotocol $OGN
📉 8) @axieinfinity $AXS
📉 9) @aavegotchi $GHST
📉 10) @alienworlds $TLM

Read about @santimentfeed's methodology for covering development activity for over 3,500 projects:

🗣️ As crypto markets look to recover after the Christmas $100K BTC tease and immediate drop thereafter, the top trending tokens across social media are:

🪙 Bitcoin $BTC: Discussions about investment strategies, its role as a store of value, and its adoption for international trade, particularly by Russian firms amidst sanctions. Traders are debating whether $100K market values are still near, or whether prices may soon sink down to $90K as the year ends.

🪙Bitget Token $BGB: Bitget's native token jumped +28% in the midst of a highly anticipated merger. The merger is expected to enhance its utility, and its market cap has reached nearly $8B, with an impressive +844% rally this year. Additionally, BGB has reached new all-time highs and seen a substantial increase in trading volume, contributing to its trend status.

🪙Bitget Wallet Token $BWB: Buzz surrounds the announcement of a merger between Bitget Wallet Token (BWB) and Bitget Token (BGB). This merger is significant as it aims to create a unified ecosystem token, enhancing utility and integration within the Bitget platform. The merger is expected to bolster market presence and streamline user experience, contributing to the rising popularity of both tokens.

🧑‍🎄📈 Bitcoin has jumped to as high as $99.8K on a bullish Christmas crypto performance. Traders are now swinging bullish once again, with speculation of $110K getting rampant. Historically, we will see $110K Bitcoin only after the crowd doesn't expect it, as this image shows.

📈 Bitcoin and altcoins have recovered well heading into Christmas Day. BTC has rebounded as high as $99K with traders hoping for a $100K Xmas gift. Here are the number of BTC wallets by size:

🦐 0-0.1 BTC Wallets: 50.17M
🐠 0.1-10 BTC Wallets: 4.31M
🦈 10-1,000 BTC Wallets: 150.13K
🐳 1,000+ BTC Wallets: 2,050

Particularly in the latter 2 groups, the bull market has a high probability of continuing as long as they rise in number and stay consistent with their accumulation, as they have throughout 2024. 👍

📈 Altcoins have seen a huge breakout Tuesday, even with Bitcoin dropping as low as $92.4K before a mild recovery. For those that scooped up speculative cryptocurrencies on the dip, things have worked out well. But note that BTC has mainly led the way throughout this bull cycle.

🧑‍💻 Here are crypto's top Solana ecosystem projects by development. Directional indicators represent each project's ranking rise or fall since last month:

➡️ 1) @solana $SOL 🥇
📈 2) @pythnetwork $PYTH 🥈
📈 3) @driftprotocol $DRIFT 🥉
📉 4) @wormholefdn $W
📈 5) @helium_mobile $MOBILE
➡️ 6) @helium $IOT
📈 7) @metaplex $MPLX
📈 8) @neonlabsorg $NEON
📉 9) @save_finance $SLND
📈 10) @marinadefinance $MNDE

Read about @santimentfeed's methodology for covering development activity for each project, objectively, using enhanced github event data:

📉 Crypto markets have opened the week retracing further, instilling panic toward the retail crowd. Particularly Bitcoin and Ethereum are seeing massive FUD from newer traders who joined markets in the past 2-3 months

These new traders have not seen mid-sized corrections before, and are expressing panic over foreign market conditions to them. Historically, when retail traders begin to sell based on panic and emotion, whales and sharks have opportunities to scoop up more coins with little resistance, creating bounces. It may or may not be immediate, but conditions are setting up in the right direction.🫡

😱 The crypto majority has flipped their moods from bullish to bearish in an alarming fashion these past 2 weeks. As market caps have corrected (particularly altcoins), there is far less interest in meme coins and far more interest back on Bitcoin. This crowd FUD is a healthy part of the cycle, and one that patient traders can capitalize on with this high level of 'blood in the streets'.

😲 The past 2 years have seen big increases in cryptocurrency holders. Here are the number of non-exmpty wallets for crypto's top 4 coins by market cap:

Bitcoin $BTC: 54.7M (+27% rise)
Ethereum $ETH: 134.9M (+47% rise)
Tether $USDT: 6.57M (+66% rise)
XRP $XRP: 5.75M (+28% rise)

🧵 Bitcoin has enjoyed quite the journey in 2024's final stretch. The following graphic indicates the crypto community's mentions across X, Reddit, Telegram, 4Chan, BitcoinTalk, and FarCaster related to:

🟨 Bitcoin at $90K
🟥 Bitcoin at $100K
🟦 Bitcoin at $110K

Continued 👇

🧵 Bitcoin has enjoyed quite the path in the final quarter of 2024. The following graphic indicates the crypto community's mentions across X, Reddit, Telegram, 4Chan, BitcoinTalk, and FarCaster related to:

🟨 Bitcoin at $90K
🟦 Bitcoin at $100K
🟥 Bitcoin at $110K

Continued 👇

🧐 Check out our major talking points in our This Week in Crypto weekly recap. We discuss the bullish and bearish tug of war around the $100K Bitcoin level, the FUD surrounding the dip, and the AI and Pengu craze.
https://insights.santiment.net/read/this-week-in-crypto-markets-fall-but-that-s-not-all-this-week-in-crypto-summary-december-21-8349

🧑‍💻 Here are crypto's top gaming projects by development. Directional indicators represent each project's ranking rise or fall since last month:

➡️ 1) @multiversx $EGLD 🥇
➡️ 2) @decentraland $MANA 🥈
📈 3) @ninechronicles $WNCG 🥉
➡️ 4) @skalenetwork $SKL
📈 5) @funtoken_io $FUN
📉 6) @imx_immutable $IMX
📉 7) @enjin $ENJ
➡️ 8) @xtreasuretoken $MAGIC (Ethereum)
📈 9) @xtreasuretoken $MAGIC (Arbitrum)
➡️ 10) @axieinfinity $AXS

Read about our new, objective methodology for covering development activity and "cutting through the noise and misinformation" for over 3,000 projects here! 👇

📺 In our latest This Week in Crypto, we discuss the signs that led to the drop. With tax-related profit taking making sense, there may still be volatility until 2025 begins. But long-term, these signals point to a great future for cryptocurrencies. 👇
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx1XqWEfuyA

📊 When looking to buy low (or sell high), don't just look at prices... Look at how competing traders have performed. Bitcoin's average returns (based on wallets making at least 1 transfer in the past 30 days) have a -1.9% return, despite BTC's all-time high happening just over 3 days ago.

With many traders buying at the top as euphoria was truly kicking in, Bitcoin now finds itself with the lowest average wallet returns (30-day MVRV) since the start of the bull rally on October 10th.

With this metric averaging 0% over the history of Bitcoin trading (due to markets being a zero-sum game), consider every percentage point into the negatives as an indication that there is an 'opportunity' to buy while other positions are at a loss. There is no guarantee that we are at (or even near) the exact local bottom, but playing the probabilities with a DCA strategy mixed in, will historically bode well for your portfolio. 👍

💸 With Bitcoin falling as low as $95.5K today, the ratio of crypto discussions that are about buying crypto's dip has reached its highest level in over 8 months. The last time we saw the crowd nearly this enthusiastic about dip buying was the major crash on August 4th. Since that time, Bitcoin's market cap is +81% higher.