Worldcoin, the ambitious project aiming to establish a universal digital identity through iris scanning, has grabbed headlines once again. This time, it’s not for its controversial practices, but for an 80% price surge in its native token, WLD, within a week. However, digging deeper reveals a multifaceted story marked by triumphs, challenges, and lingering concerns.

Soaring App Usage Drives Growth

On the positive side, Worldcoin boasts significant milestones. Its World App, launched in May 2023, has witnessed a surge in users, registering a record 16,000 daily Orb verifications – their unique eye-scanning tool.

This indicates growing interest in their core proposition: providing a decentralized identity solution accessible to everyone. Additionally, Worldcoin secured $115 million in a Series C funding round, demonstrating investor confidence despite past controversies.

But the recent spike in WLD’s price also brings with it a warning. The parabolic rise in the price of Worldcoin (WLD) is one of the latest milestones that the Altman-led company has experienced.

At the time of writing, WLD was trading at $5.27, up 20% in the last 24 hours, and tallying a solid 106% rally in the last seven days, data from Coingecko shows. Notably, Worldcoin, within the last week, recorded more than 80% in profits.

Worldcoin: Big Whale Moves 

In the meantime, big transactions that have added millions to the revenues of an unknown whale wallet in a matter of days have brought it to light. With the digital asset market a flurry of activity, people are paying close attention to and analyzing the emergence of WLD and its ramifications.

The crypto market had a notable disruption when a well-known Worldcoin whale wallet, known as “0x0007”, executed an incredible maneuver. Leading on-chain data tracking tool Spot On Chain disclosed that the whale took out an astounding 2.09 million WLD tokens from Binance, valued at $5.82 million.

The whale now owns an astounding $8.03 million in assets, having gained $2.15 million due to the recent spike in the price of WLD.

It’s important to note that attributing the price surge solely to this single wallet’s activity is impossible without further information and expert analysis. However, its presence highlights the broader issue of market concentration and its potential impact on price stability.

Moving forward, transparency from Worldcoin regarding large token holders and their intentions, alongside robust regulations to mitigate manipulation risks, will be crucial to ensuring a healthy and sustainable ecosystem for WLD and the wider cryptocurrency market.

Navigating Regulatory Headwinds And Privacy Concerns

However, Worldcoin’s journey is not without hurdles. The company faced pushback in several countries, including France, India, and Brazil, where they had to halt iris scanning due to privacy concerns. These controversies raised questions about the ethical implications of collecting biometric data and its potential misuse. Additionally, their initial promise of offering free cryptocurrency in exchange for scans drew criticism for potentially exploiting vulnerable populations in developing countries.

Moving Forward: Transparency And Community Dialogue Hold The Key

Worldcoin’s future trajectory hinges on its ability to navigate these complexities. Addressing privacy concerns with robust data security measures and clear opt-in processes is crucial. Transparency about project goals, tokenomics, and potential risks is essential for building trust within the wider community. Open dialogue with regulators and users will be key to securing social acceptance and navigating the legal landscape.

While Worldcoin’s recent successes are noteworthy, they are accompanied by significant challenges and ethical considerations. Only through addressing these concerns and fostering open communication can Worldcoin hope to achieve its ambitious vision of a universal digital identity solution in a responsible and sustainable manner.

Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from TradingView

Over the past week, the Bitcoin price put in one of its finest performances since the start of 2024, breaking above $50,000 for the first time since 2021. While the premier cryptocurrency has been moving mostly sideways in the past few days, it continues to hold its own above the $51,000 mark.

However, a popular crypto analyst on the X platform has put forward an interesting prognosis for the Bitcoin price, stating that the coin might experience some bearish pressure in the near future.

Is BTC Headed To $46,000?

On Thursday, February 15, prominent crypto analyst Ali Martinez sounded the sell alarm – based on the Tom Demark Sequential indicator – for Bitcoin. According to the analyst, investors should anticipate a one-to-four candlesticks correction on BTC’s daily chart in the coming days.

Ali Martinez took to the X platform on Saturday, February 17, to share an in-depth analysis of an impending correction for the Bitcoin price. This evaluation is based on the distribution of holders’ cost basis across the various BTC price zones near the current price of the cryptocurrency.

With this on-chain indicator, the strength of any resistance or support level depends on the number of coins acquired by investors within the price range. And this strength is portrayed by how large or small the circles (representing the price ranges) are.

As shown in the chart above, the price of Bitcoin seems to be facing significant resistance between $51,099 and $52,582. Recognizing this pattern, Martinez said in his post that if the flagship cryptocurrency fails to reclaim the $52,000 level, then it is at risk of an 8% price correction. 

An 8% decline from the current point would see the Bitcoin price drop to between the $48,000 and $46,500 zone. According to the on-chain resistance data, more than 1 million addresses bought 544,870 BTC within this range, making it a significant support level.

Bitcoin Price Overview

As of this writing, the Bitcoin price stands at around $51,650, reflecting an almost 0.9% dip in the past 24 hours. Despite the recent bearish pressure slowing down its momentum, the market leader has maintained most of its profit from the past week.

According to data from CoinGecko, Bitcoin’s value has jumped by more than 8% in the last seven days. Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency has registered over 20% growth so far in the month of February.

Thanks to the recent price rise, BTC surpassed the $1 trillion mark in terms of market capitalization, solidifying its position as the largest asset in the cryptocurrency sector.

Chainlink (LINK), the oracle network powering smart contracts across the crypto landscape, is making waves with a recent surge in whale activity. Data reveals $216 million worth of LINK tokens withdrawn from the Binance exchange by a staggering 83 separate wallets, sending the token price on a parabolic trajectory.

Whales On A Feeding Frenzy

On-chain analytics platform Lookonchain paints a fascinating picture of the ongoing accumulation binge. Their findings suggest a coordinated effort, with distinct wallets withdrawing massive amounts of LINK. While the possibility of a single entity pulling the strings remains unconfirmed, the sheer volume of tokens amassed hints at a major shift in institutional participation within the Chainlink ecosystem.

This coordinated accumulation, especially the withdrawal of such a significant sum from a major exchange like Binance, raises intriguing questions, some analysts say. It could reflect growing institutional confidence in Chainlink’s long-term potential, particularly with initiatives like the Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) expanding its reach.

83 fresh wallets(may belong to the same institution) withdrew a total of 11,097,687 $LINK($216.4M) from #Binance in the past 2 weeks.

Address list:https://t.co/cYgH52rHzxhttps://t.co/JNuXc43l2I pic.twitter.com/u178vVVGiT

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) February 17, 2024

Adding fuel to the fire, IntoTheBlock data reveals an additional $129 million stacked up by whales over the past 24 hours alone. This relentless buying pressure has translated directly to price action, with LINK experiencing a meteoric rise of 6% in the past week and a staggering 20% in the past month.

Chainlink Fundamentals Shine

While whale activity often grabs headlines, Chainlink’s underlying fundamentals paint an equally compelling picture. As the leading oracle provider in the Web3 space, Chainlink acts as a bridge between smart contracts and real-world data, enabling them to access secure and reliable information off-chain. This critical role fuels countless DeFi projects, positioning Chainlink as a cornerstone of the burgeoning decentralized finance landscape.

Moreover, Chainlink boasts a relentless development team, consistently rolling out new features and upgrades. Notably, the recent introduction of CCIP further enhances the network’s cross-chain compatibility, opening doors to a wider range of smart contract applications. This unwavering commitment to innovation further strengthens the investor case for Chainlink.

Parabolic Dreams: Will LINK Take Flight?

With bullish sentiment surging and whales circling, the question on everyone’s lips is: can LINK sustain its upward trajectory? While predicting the future of any crypto asset remains a perilous endeavor, analysts are cautiously optimistic. The confluence of strong fundamentals, whale accumulation, and a growing user base creates a fertile ground for further price appreciation.

Analysts said the ongoing accumulation by whales, coupled with Chainlink’s solid fundamentals, suggests a potential parabolic run. However, caution is warranted. The crypto market remains volatile, and profit-taking could trigger corrections. Nevertheless, LINK’s long-term prospects appear bright, making it an asset worth watching closely.”

Whether LINK’s price soars to parabolic heights or faces turbulence in the near future, one thing remains clear: the recent whale activity and unwavering developer commitment have thrust Chainlink back into the spotlight, solidifying its position as a key player in the ever-evolving blockchain landscape.

Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from TradingView

Filecoin (FIL) continues to enjoy investors’ interest following a 10.28% gain in the last day, according to data from CoinMarketCap. The altcoin has recently been the center of attention following a gradual price rise in the past week culminating in a 15.34% price gain. Interestingly, the spike in FIL’s price over the 24 hours appears to be fueled by exciting developments in the project’s ecosystem.

Filecoin Meets Solana

In an X post on February 16, Filecoin announced an integration with the popular Ethereum rival, Solana. Launched in March 2020, Solana is regarded as one of the most prominent smart contract-compatible platforms offering fast transactions and almost non-existent fees.

Solana’s integration with #Filecoin is a significant move away from centralized storage solutions and a remarkable step towards enhancing the reliability and scalability of the Solana blockchain.@solana is utilizing Filecoin to make its block history more accessible and usable… pic.twitter.com/1NcuaLNYT5

— Filecoin (@Filecoin) February 16, 2024

Ranked as the fifth-largest crypto project with a market cap value of $47.97 billion, Solana’s integration with Filecoin is aimed at migrating from its widely criticized centralized storage system to decentralized storage solutions, with the aim of improving its existing scalability and integrity. 

Through this integration, Filecoin’s network will assist Solana in enhancing access to its blockchain history, which will be beneficial to developers, explorers, indexers, and other network users. In addition, Filecoin’s decentralized storage solutions will allow Solana to experience data redundancy, scalability, and a higher level of security while operating as a decentralized network. 

Interestingly, this development created much excitement in the Filecoin user community as FIL surged by over 10%, reaching a value of $6.36. Meanwhile, FIL’s daily trading volume stands at $497.78 million, having recorded an astounding 178.42% gain.

FIL Price Prediction

FIL began 2024 on a turbulent note losing about 40% of its value between January 1 and January 23. However, in the last few weeks, the token has experienced a steady price recovery which is further aided by its most recent boost in price.

If the bulls are able to sustain the current buying momentum, FIL may hit the $8 price mark representing a return to the levels seen at the start of 2024. However, according to the token’s daily chart, the relative strength index has now crossed into the overbought zone. This indicates that there might be an incoming trend reversal. In that case, FIL’s price may fall as low as $4.90, which represents its next support level and a 23.71% decline from the current market price. 

Filecoin (FIL) trading at $6.341 on the daily chart | Source: FILUSDT chart on Tradingview.com

Despite the recent market surge, Toncoin and Celestia have lost their momentum. Both projects have seen price declines over the last 24 hours, causing investors to jump boat and diversify.

Meanwhile, a new meme coin is surging during its presale. Now, as early investors prepare for returns of 220%, experts believe this project could become one of the biggest meme coins of 2024.

Toncoin Pioneers New DeFi Developments

Toncoin is working to bridge the gap between DeFi and real-world applications. Over the last month, Toncoin’s new development has made it possible for users to buy anonymous phone numbers. The altcoin also set a new translation speed record, with 104,715 transactions per second.

These developments have put Toncoin on the radar of many investors, however, the altcoins price performance has been poor. Over the last month, Toncoin’s price decreased by 5.55%, while many projects saw increases of over 20%.

Consequently, Toncoin’s popularity has decreased, and its daily trading volume has fallen to just $41 million. According to CoinMarketCap, this makes Toncoin the #160 ranked cryptocurrency by daily trading volume, despite TON being the 15th ranked cryptocurrency by market cap.

Celestia Crashes After Hitting An All-Time High

On February 10, Celestia hit a new all-time high of $20.91. This achievement helped Celestia make global headlines, during which Celestia’s daily trading volume surged. However, since hitting this milestone, Celestia’s momentum has crashed.

The altcoin hit a strong resistance, and its price is down by 12.62% to $18.21. This price crash has caused Celestia’s daily trading volume to fall to $220 million, and some investors are now selling their TIA tokens.

Nonetheless, experts remain bullish about Celestia. According to bullish market predictions, Celestia could hit $30 by the end of Q1. This significant increase would make Celestia one of the markets best-performing altcoins, though it would require the general crypto market to remain bullish for at least another month.

Investors Choose This New Altcoin Over Trending Cryptos

As several altcoins start to lose their momentum, many investors are choosing to diversify with a popular new meme coin, KangaMoon.

KangaMoon (KANG) has quickly attracted a bullish investor community with its hybrid social-fi and P2E model. Unlike other meme coins, KangaMoon offers fantastic utility and gives its player base several different income opportunities.

For example, KangaMoon users will be able to complete weekly, monthly, and quarterly challenges to win the project’s native token, KANG. Furthermore, during the KangaMoon presale, investors who actively promote the project will be granted additional KANG rewards.

The KangaMoon ecosystem is designed to promote social activity. Users will be rewarded for engaging with players, with more social activity leading to greater social rewards. The aim of this is to create a vibrant, exciting community where DeFi enthusiasts can network, build new connections, and more.

KANG tokens are currently available for $0.005, though are expected to increase in value soon as stage 1 of the KangaMoon presale sells out. During its presale, analysts speculate that KangaMoon could offer returns of over 220%, which has made the presale a popular option among altcoin investors.

Can KangaMoon Outpace Toncoin and Celestia?

Having already gained significant momentum, KangaMoon is expected to outperform Toncoin and Celestia in Q1. Once it launches on Tier-1 exchanges, experts speculate that KangaMoon could offer additional returns of up to 350%, which has made the meme coin a highly anticipated project.

Discover the Exciting Opportunities of the Kangamoon (KANG) Presale Today!

Website: https://Kangamoon.com/

Join Our Telegram Community: https://t.me/Kangamoonofficial

A few outliers continue to break through the bearish attitudes looming over the crypto horizon of late. UNI is one of those tokens, with an impressive jump of over 12% in the past 24 hours, investors have flocked to this altcoin in search of a bullish continuation. 

The first quarter of this year brings a lot to the table for investors. Just this month, Uniswap reported that its deployment on Arbitrum led to the swap volume on the latter to jump by a significant amount. The news is also coupled with exciting new info on Uniswap’s latest agenda: the launch of Uniswap v4. 

Arbitrum swap volume has grown more than 4x since this time last year pic.twitter.com/w4iEhKGUty

— Uniswap Labs (@Uniswap) February 16, 2024

What Is Uniswap V4? 

After news that Ethereum, Uniswap’s L1, will have its Dencun upgrade in this year’s first quarter, Uniswap then announced that their latest iteration of the protocol would be launched sometime in Q3 2024. 

Now that the launch of Dencun on Mainnet has been scheduled for March 2024, we’re excited to provide an update to the community!

Uniswap v4’s launch is tentatively set for Q3 2024.

From community-built Hooks (https://t.co/WyaGr1Ti1t), to events, to Twitter Spaces, the…

— Uniswap Foundation (@UniswapFND) February 15, 2024

In essence, Uniswap v4 is a more efficient and cost-effective brother of v3. According to Uniswap’s own website, it is a “non-custodial, non-upgradeable, and permissionless automated market maker protocol.”

In the announcement, v4 is currently in its first phase with the developers finalizing the core functionalities and features of the upgrade. The update would let the team create new features on top of the current AMM design of the protocol. This eliminates the need for creating an entirely new design from the ground up. 

Leading The Innovation Charge

Uniswap is also ramping up its effort in providing funding for innovators in the Web 3 space. Last week, the Uniswap Foundation X account released a detailed look at the organization’s new granting strategy. 

Introducing our Reimagined Grants Strategy

Our vision is simple: to make the @Uniswap Protocol the liquidity layer of the Internet.

As stewards of the Protocol and the Community, we have evolved our grants strategy to turn this vision into reality.

Here’s why and how

— Uniswap Foundation (@UniswapFND) February 7, 2024

In short, the new strategy revolves around granting a minimum of $250,000 in four audience-specific categories: developers, researchers, delegates, and innovation (all stakeholders). 

For now, no date of implementation has been announced for these new grants. 

UNI: Challenging Week Ahead For Investors

The lead-up to the month of March has certainly brought a level of hype around the broader market, but thus hype has since died down and was replaced by profit-taking attitudes. UNI will inevitably experience this bearishness taking hold in the coming weeks as the market potentially dips. 

If this happens, investors and traders have strong support on the 50% and 38.20% price levels. These supports will slow down any bearish advance, stabilizing UNI’s price at the $7.3 and $7 range. 

Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from TradingView

Coinbase Custody reportedly now holds over 90% of all Bitcoin ETFs in the United States. This development was revealed by the crypto exchange’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, while appraising the company’s performance in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023.

Coinbase Emerges As Major Player In Bitcoin ETF Market

In an X post on February 16, Brian Armstrong shared specific highlights of Coinbase’s achievement in Q4 2023. In particular, He noted that the American crypto exchange has played a crucial part in facilitating the adoption of cryptocurrencies by traditional financial firms (TradFi).

A major part of this adoption is the Bitcoin ETF market which is worth $37 billion, ranking as the second largest commodity ETF market after Gold. Armstrong noted that Coinbase has played a significant role in this development, serving as custodian for 90% of the investment funds in the Bitcoin ETF market.

A few thoughts on our Q4 Earnings yesterday:

2023 was a great year for Coinbase and we’re in a strong financial position. We cut costs by 45% y/y and shipped products faster with a leaner team driving $95 million of positive net income for 2023, $964 million in positive Adj.… pic.twitter.com/XK8f0EQBdP

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) February 16, 2024

For context, a custodian is a regulated financial institution that holds customers’ securities and assets, providing protection against any form of loss or theft. Notably, Coinbase is listed as the custodian for eight of the 11 recently launched Bitcoin spot ETFs. These include BlackRock’s IBIT, Ark Invest’s ARKB, Bitwise’s BITB, and Grayscale’s GBTC, among others.

These statistics indicate that Coinbase is well placed to record larger milestones as the top traditional financial institutions are tipped to finally invest in Bitcoin ETFs, especially upon the proven success and stability of the Bitcoin spot ETFs.

According to Armstrong, other notable Coinbase achievements in Q4 2024 include the launch of the exchange’s international wing, and the layer-2 blockchain solution Base. The crypto exchange also claimed to slash its annual costs by 45% while generating a total income of $3.1 billion.

Looking Forward To 2024

In retrospect to 2024, Armstrong stated that Coinbase will maintain focus on its international expansion and new derivatives products. In addition, they will aim to promote the adoption of crypto payments by transforming the Coinbase wallet into a super app. 

Finally, the exchange CEO states that Coinbase will continue to advocate for a clear regulatory framework applicable to the crypto space. Armstrong says that Coinbase is committed to this course and is willing to explore all means, including legal processes as well as engaging the federal legislators.

COIN trading at $180.28 on the trading chart | Source: COIN chart on Tradingview.com

The price of Bitcoin has continued to soar this week, with the premier cryptocurrency consolidating its place above the $50,000 mark. Interestingly, on-chain data shows that a particular class of investors had less to do about the recent rally, sparking conversations about their participation in the current bull cycle.

Recent BTC Price Primarily Fueled By ‘Institutional Demand’

In a recent post on X, analyst Ali Martinez pointed out that there has been an apparent decline in the involvement of retail investors in the Bitcoin market. This shift comes despite the recent surge in the flagship cryptocurrency’s price.

This revelation is based on the noticeable fall in the daily creation of new Bitcoin addresses. According to the crypto intelligence platform Glassnode, this metric tracks the number of unique addresses that appeared for the first time in a transaction of the native coin in the network.

Typically, more individuals are inclined to enter the market as the value of Bitcoin increases, often resulting in a spike in new addresses to store and transact the coin. However, there is currently a deviation between the BTC price and the creation of new addresses.

According to Martinez, this curious trend suggests a lack of retail participation in the ongoing Bitcoin bull run. The crypto analyst, however, tied the flagship cryptocurrency’s recent positive performance to institutional players’ activity.

This analysis seems to hold some weight, considering it’s been a little over a month since the Securities and Exchange Commission approved the trading of spot BTC exchange-traded funds in the United States. These investment products are issued and managed by some of the world’s largest financial companies, including BlackRock, Grayscale, Fidelity, and so on.

Bitcoin Whales Show Highest Activity Since 2022

Another on-chain revelation that somewhat supports the argument of increased institutional participation has emerged. According to analytics platform Santiment, BTC whale activity has been heating up lately, reaching its highest level in over 20 months.

Independent from the impressive volume happening with #Bitcoin #ETF‘s, there has been a distinct flip in the level of $BTC‘s supply being held by different sized wallets:

1K-10K $BTC wallets: $12.95B added in 2024 100-1K $BTC wallets: $7.89B dropped in 2024

(Cont) pic.twitter.com/BL7Mrj6kLq

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) February 16, 2024

Data from Santiment shows that wallets with 1,000 – 10,000 BTC are on an accumulation spree, adding roughly 249,000 coins (worth about $12.8 billion) in 2024 only. However, it is worth mentioning that a lower tier of investors (100 – 1,000 BTC) has sold more than 151,000 Bitcoin since the year started.

As of this writing, Bitcoin is valued at $51,950, reflecting a 0.6% decline in the past day. Nonetheless, the premier cryptocurrency has retained most of its weekly profit, having gained almost 10% in the last seven days.

According to the blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain, a crypto trader suffered a phishing attack that swooped over 180 million BEAM tokens on Wednesday and affected the token’s price.

180 Million BEAM Tokens Stolen

In an X (former Twitter) post, Lookonchain exposed a new crypto scam that had occurred on February 15. As the analytics platform detailed, the address 0x83664B8a83b9845Ac7b177DF86d0F5BF3b7739AD, under the name ‘Kirilm.eth’, suffered a phishing attack that led to the theft of millions of BEAM tokens.

kirilm.eth was phishing attacked and lost 180.25M $BEAM($5.14M) 13 hours ago.

The scammer quickly sold the 180.25M $BEAM for 1,629 $ETH($4.6M), which caused the price of $BEAM to drop by ~7%.https://t.co/x8epiNx4Qa pic.twitter.com/ytcfYib2Kg

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) February 16, 2024

Users seemingly identified the victim as a crypto trader named Kirill Marinov. According to the information provided, the victim lost 180.25 million BEAM tokens, worth approximately $5.14 million, to an account labeled as ‘Fake_Phishing291038.’

Shortly after the theft, the scammer’s address liquidated the total amount of stolen BEAM tokens, exchanging them for 1,629 ETH worth approximately $4.6 million.

According to Web3 anti-scam platform Scam Sniffer, the victim signed an ‘increase allowance’ transaction that gave the scammer access to the tokens. Additionally, the. X post detailed that the token spender is a Safe Wallet address.

However, this writing has not revealed further details about the victim, the exact tactics used by the scammer, and their identity.

Phishing scams are among the most popular tactics for crypto-related crimes. Scammers exploit inexperienced investors’ naivety and oversights from more experienced traders to gain access to the funds.

The scamming tactics involve a variety of ways to trick the victims into revealing their private keys or login information to grant access to the victim’s wallets. Due to this, experts urge all crypto investors to stay alert and take the necessary measures to keep their assets safe.

BEAM Price Reacts To The Crypto Heist

The BEAM token serves as the native crypto asset for the Beam network. After the heist and subsequent exchange to ETH, the token’s price dropped, falling from the $0.030 price level to the $0.028 range.

Beam Network is a gaming network powered by the Merit Circle DAO. The ecosystem brings developers and gamers together to develop the gaming industry further. According to the Beam team, “At its core, Beam aspires to create harmony between gamers and developers.

It’s not just about gaming; it’s about ownership, empowerment, and a global community. Every feature and tool is a step towards this visionary future.”

At writing time, the token trades at $0.027, representing a 2.4% drop in the last hour and a 9.3% decrease from its trading price in the previous 24 hours. According to CoinMarketCap data, the token’s daily trading volume saw a 25.7% decrease in the last 24 hours, sitting at the #104 spot on this metric with $61.4 million.

Despite the negative price reaction following the scam, the BEAM price still registered a 32.9% increase in the last 7 days. Similarly, BEAM’s trust score in the spot markets remains untouched, per CoinGecko Data.

In just over a month since their approval by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Bitcoin ETFs have swiftly gained traction in the market, posing a formidable challenge to the long-standing dominance of gold ETFs.

Bitcoin ETFs Gain Ground on Gold ETFs

The rapid rise of Bitcoin ETFs has led to a convergence in asset values, with BTC ETFs closing the gap with gold ETFs. Bitcoin ETFs hold approximately $37 billion in assets after only 25 trading days, while gold ETFs have accumulated $93 billion in over 20 years of trading. 

In this regard, Bloomberg’s Senior Commodity Strategist, Mike McGlone, emphasizes the shifting landscape, stating, “Tangible Gold is Losing Luster to Intangible Bitcoin.” 

According to McGlone, the US stock market’s continued resilience, the US currency’s strength, and 5% interest rates have presented headwinds for gold. Moreover, as the world increasingly embraces digitalization, the emergence of Bitcoin ETFs in the United States adds further competition to the precious metal.

McGlone further states that while the bias for gold prices remains upward, investors who solely focus on gold may risk falling behind potential paradigm-shifting digitalization trends. 

Ultimately, McGlone suggests that investors should consider diversifying their portfolios by incorporating Bitcoin or other digital assets to stay ahead in the evolving investment landscape.

Bitcoin Rally Driven By Institutional Demand 

The success of Bitcoin ETFs is further demonstrated by recent data suggesting that the upward trend in Bitcoin prices is driven primarily by institutional demand. At the same time, retail participation appears to be declining.

According to analyst Ali Martinez, as the price of Bitcoin continues to hover between $51,800 and $52,100, there has been a noticeable decrease in the creation of new Bitcoin addresses daily, indicating a lack of retail participation in the current bull rally and highlighting the growing influence of institutional investors in the cryptocurrency market.

However, market expert Crypto Con points out a significant shift in Long-Term Bitcoin holder positions, signaling a potential downside movement. 

As seen in the chart below shared by Crypto Con, the position change line crossed below -50.00 for the first time in over a year, a pattern that has historically occurred at critical moments in Bitcoin’s market cycles. These moments include the cycle bottom, mid-top (which occurred only once), and the start/end of a cycle top parabola (which occurred most frequently).

According to Crypto Con, this recent shift in long-term holder positions raises two possible scenarios: a mid-top or an imminent parabolic movement. Such a movement at this stage in the cycle is considered unusual. 

Primarily, it indicates that long-term Bitcoin holders are exiting their positions in significant numbers, possibly anticipating a market correction or a change in the overall trend.

Overall, the shift in Bitcoin holder positions and the decline in retail participation present contrasting dynamics in the current market landscape. While institutional demand continues to drive the price of Bitcoin higher, long-term holders appear to be taking profit or adjusting their positions. 

While BTC is currently trading at $51,800, it remains to be seen what the direction of the next move will be and how institutions will continue to influence the price action of the largest cryptocurrency as spot Bitcoin ETFs gain traction.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com