The price of Bitcoin (BTC) corrected sharply on December 11, falling 7% and erasing the gains of the last seven days. The Bitcoin (BTC) rate fell from December 11 to December 12, immediately reaching $40,292 on the Binance exchange in pairs with the stablecoin Tether USD (USDT). The price of BTC then recovered, and at 9:45 Hong Kong time, the first cryptocurrency was trading at $41,561. Before the correction began on December 11, the price of BTC was fixed at $44 thousand. The decline in prices for altcoins followed a correction in the prices of bitcoins, many of which recorded double-digit declines. The second largest cryptocurrency Ethereum (ETH) is trading at $2,217, having fallen in price by 1% per day. But the Binance exchange token (BNB) over the same period rose in price by more than 7%, reaching $250. At the same time, the coin remains the only major crypto asset that has been in the red since the beginning of this year, despite the growth of the entire market. The Avalanche token (AVAX), which recently entered the top ten in terms of capitalization, also continues to grow: the coin rose in price by 16.7% in one day, overtaking Dogecoin (DOGE) in terms of capitalization.
The sharp market decline on Monday, December 11th also saw the liquidation of more than $400 million worth of cryptocurrency positions, clearing the market. Shares of public companies that invest in Bitcoin also sank following the trading day. Thus, Coinbase (COIN) lost about 5%, MicroStrategy (MSTR) fell in price by 7%, and shares of mining companies Riot Platforms (RIOT) and Marathon Digital (MARA) – by 11 and 12%, respectively.
Crypto analyst and CFO of the ASTL investment project Konstantinas Sizovas said that the correction and market volatility are crowding out “weak hands” and cooling the highly leveraged crypto markets. “Bitcoin has only roughly doubled in 2 months without any pullbacks, the correction is not all that surprising. Corrections shake out weak hands and leverage, creating a stronger foundation for an eventual move higher. Bitcoin volatility is a feature, not a bug “. According to Konstantinas Sizovas, the recent reset could push altcoins into a new bull run. He added that Bitcoin will need a long period of effort to resume its upward trend as Bitcoin’s dominance has reached its peak.
The price of BTC has risen 50% since its price breakout in late October. Hitesh.eth pointed to on-chain data suggesting that wallets with more than 1 BTC were constantly buying BTC, and whales were also hoarding them. Institutional inflows and growing interest from financial giants amid the push to create the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund have created the right momentum for BTC ahead of the key halving event expected in April 2024.
Additionally, Goldman Sachs, the world’s second-largest investment bank, predicts that the US Federal Reserve could cut interest rates twice over the next two years, starting in the third quarter of 2024. It is clear that interest rates have a strong correlation with investors’ risk appetite. Goldman Sachs had forecast the Fed’s first rate cut by December 2024, but that forecast was pushed back to the third quarter of 2024 due to cooling inflation, Reuters reported on December 11. The Fed’s two cuts are expected to push interest rates to 4.875% by the end of 2024, up from the previous forecast of 5.13%. This change in expectations comes after data released on December 8 showed a stronger-than-expected US labor market after the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report said the unemployment rate fell to 3.7% from 3. .9% in October. However, Reuters reports still quoted traders as saying that firmer labor market dynamics will not keep the Fed from cutting interest rates. They expect the first contraction to occur in the first quarter of 2024, two quarters ahead of Goldman Sachs’ forecast.
Against the backdrop of such trends, one of the legitimate and stable forms of investing in obtaining consistently high passive income is investing in the ASTL project (Hong Kong), which gives investors the opportunity to directly invest fiat and cryptocurrency assets into stable passive income, which obviously exceeds inflation expectations and does not fall under any sanctions, blocking and confiscation. The ASTL project is a simple and elegant solution for potential investors – an investment in the development of the real sector of a diversified portfolio of cryptocurrencies, with a fairly high APR (up to 14%) with payments in stablecoin (USDT) and the possibility of a full return on investment through the subsequent sale of accrued ASTL tokens on leading crypto exchanges . Details can be found at https://astl.world