Bitcoin Makes History, Trump Selects New SEC Chair, Mt. Gox Moves Billions: This Week’s Crypto Recap

To say that the past seven days were exciting would be an understatement. According to CoinGecko, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization increased by almost $300 billion and peaked at around $3.8 trillion. This comes on the back of a historic milestone for Bitcoin and the strong performance of many altcoins, so let’s dive into the price action.

All eyes were turned on Bitcoin this week. To be completely honest, the price action was relatively dull and rather depressing for the first part of the week. BTC was chopping between $98,000 and $96,000, even dropping to a low below $94,000 at one point. The bulls weren’t active. This all changed on Wednesday when the price shot up toward $99,000.

Most of the community were convinced that the price would once again be stopped there, but the buyers had something else in mind. On Thursday morning (Central European Time), the price exploded above $100,000 for the first time in history, thus completing one of the most iconic milestones in Bitcoin’s history. And it didn’t stop there, either. It charted a new all-time high at around $104,000, but that’s where the sellers stepped in, picking up a huge amount of overleveraged long positions and causing a massive drawdown extended all the way to $92,000 (on Bitstamp).

Yes, that’s what hundreds of millions of overleveraged long positions can cause to the price when there’s significant selling pressure. Fortunately, Bitcoin recovered and is currently found at around $98,000.

As we mentioned, though, it wasn’t just BTC that was soaring. The best performer from the top 10 is undoubtedly Ripple’s XRP. The cryptocurrency exploded by as much as 60% at one point but has since retraced a little bit and is currently trading at $2.30. Ethereum is also up by about 7.6%, Binance Coin (BNB) is up by 8.5%, ADA – by 8%, and so forth.

Bitcoin’s rally above $100K came on the back of a major announcement from President-elect Donald Trump. He has made his pick for the new Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and it’s former commissioner Paul Atkins. In the words of Trump himself, Atkins is well-known for his balanced and understanding approach toward digital assets and innovations.

With that said, it’s very interesting to monitor the crypto markets in the coming weeks. Will Bitcoin reclaim its high of $104,000 or is a deeper correction in the making? We will have to wait and see.

Market Data

Market Cap: $3.73T | 24H Vol: $406B | BTC Dominance: 51.9%

BTC: $98,939 (+1%) | ETH: $3,895 ( +7.6% ) | XRP: $2.30 (+37.9%)

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss

Another Monday, Another Buy: MicroStrategy Adds 15,400 BTC for $1.5 Billion. This Monday, MicroStrategy bought another 15,400 BTC for around $1.5 billion at an average price of $95,976 per coin. This brings its total Bitcoin stack to 402,100 or roughly 1.9% of the entire supply.

MARA Closes $850M Convertible Note Offering to Boost Bitcoin Holdings. MARA Holdings, the largest Bitcoin miner that’s also publicly trading on Wall Street, has successfully closed a second offering of $850 million worth of convertible senior notes. The goal of this raise is to boost the firm’s Bitcoin holdings.

Fed Chair Likens Bitcoin to Gold, Says It’s Not a Rival to the Dollar. Jerome Powell, the Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve, dismissed concerns over faith in the US Dollar. He likened Bitcoin to other speculative assets such as gold and said that its volatility keeps it away from mainstream adoption.

BlackRock’s IBIT Becomes Fastest ETF in History to Hit $50B in AUM. BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF – IBIT – has made history. It became the fastest ETF ever to achieve $50 billion in total assets under management.

Mt. Gox Wallet Moves 27,871 BTC as Bitcoin Hits $100K Milestone. Mt. Gox has moved around $3 billion worth of BTC to an unidentified address on December 4th. The trustee is probably preparing for the next round of distributions to its creditors.

Solana Whales Begin Accumulation Spree Amid Predictions of SOL at $600. There are some wild SOL price predictions out there, expecting it to reach a massive $600 in the near future. Amid all this, Solana whales have started accumulating considerably.