With Bitcoins price falling to as low as $47,450, losing over 8% in the last three days the anticipation of a New Year rally seemed to wither away. A move under the $50,000 support triggered selling which was followed by another price pullback under the $48,000 support where Bitcoin traded at the time of writing.

Ahead of the Friday expiry of 124.7K options contracts, the recent slump under the $48K level could lead the top asset either way.

Options market heated

The combined trading volume of Bitcoin and Ethereum options increased +443% in 2021 to $387 billion for the year as of December 27. Last year, BTC and ETH options saw a combined trading volume of over $71 billion.

Source: TheBlock

Over the last week alone OI has seen an increase of some $2.5 billion, primarily led by traders on Binance. Even though Futures OI is still away from all-time highs, rapid increases in leverage can indicate a clustering of stop-losses and liquidation levels in close proximity to the current price.

Data from Glassnode further presented how this leverage rise can add higher probabilities to a potential short, or long squeeze in the near term.

A general decline in trading volume is typically seen towards year end, however, on a 7-day average basis, futures market volumes have seen a YTD decline of 16%. Thinner volume and rising OI in a concentrated exchange is a combination that can be favorable to at least a localized leverage squeeze over the coming weeks.

With the BTC leverage ratio at ATH levels, the possibility of a correction to flush out all the excess leverage was in play as prices slumped.

HODLers still sitting tight

Historically, the market saw 32% supply-in-loss at $29K bottom in July, while currently, 26% of the BTC supply is in the loss territory. Nonetheless, some long-term holders havent touched their BTC in over five years, with over 23% of BTCs 21 million supply remaining untouched in the period.

For now, long-term holders marginally trimmed their BTC positions in recent weeks, despite prices falling by almost $20,000, or -24.4%, since the BTC ATH. The supply held by investors only dropped to 13.3 million from 13.4 million, a small change relative to the sharp price drop.

Source: Glassnode

Analyst Rekt Capital, highlighted Bitcoins revisit to the 21-week EMA at which the coin faced rejection. Historically, BTC has performed downside wicks into the orange area during this red retest so theres a possibility of another revisit to the lower $44K level, unless the 21-week EMA is established as support in the near term.

If the $40K-$42K range is retested it could likely become a local bottom for the midterm but for now with the year-end Options expiry in place and the possibility of a leverage squeeze BTCs price could visit lower levels in the days to come.

Originally posted here:
With a Bitcoin leverage squeeze in play, the price could be headed this way - AMBCrypto News

The government of Iran has ordered a shutdown of cryptocurrency mining across the country over fears that the power consumed by miners would overload the countrys shaky power grid and lead to blackouts.This is the second time the government hasclosed downcryptocurrency mining this year.

Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, the director of Irans state-run Grid Management Company,indicated thatthe ban would last until March 6, 2022. He estimated that more thantwo hundredmegawatts of power would be freed up for other uses from the ban.

Mashhadi also suggested that Iranian authorities would intensify a crackdown against unlicensed cryptocurrency miners operating in secret, who consume an estimatedsix hundredmegawatts of electricity and whose output far exceeds the officially recognized miners.

Cryptocurrency mining, particularly Bitcoin mining, is popular in Iran. The countrys ease of access to natural gas has led to extremely cheap electricity, making mining in Iran more economically viable than in many other areas. Moreover, Western sanctions against Iran are unable to prevent cryptocurrency mining, which has beenused as a source of fundsby the government in Tehran in the past.

Mining increased in Iran in mid-2020 after China, which had previously been the worlds leader in Bitcoin mining,banned the practice, leading some operators to resume the practice in other nations. At the same time, the country experienced aseries of blackouts, leading in turn to an increase in protests against the government. The need to preserve power and restore stability led authorities in Tehran to ban mining for the first time.

The current plan to ban mining comes in conjunction with several other energy-saving measures, such as the shutdown of street lights in some areas at certain times. Tehran has also pushed for additional means of power generation, which Mashhadi projected would lead to a 60 percent increase in available power during the upcoming summer.

Electricity consumption in Iran is often highest during the winter. The daily gas demand for Iranian households ismostly used to power heating. Ithas increased to 570 million cubic meters per day, an unprecedented amount in the countrys recorded history of energy consumption. The National Iranian Gas Company announced in a statement last week that it had maxed out its natural gas production ateight hundredmillion cubic meters per day, forcing reductions in supply to other areas, such as offices and industry.

TrevorFilsethis a current and foreign affairs writer for theNational Interest.

Image: Reuters

Excerpt from:
Iran Bans Bitcoin Mining (Again) - The National Interest

Bitcoin (BTC) whales are the center of attention again this week as large transactions flow back to exchanges.

Data from on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant on Dec. 24 shows that relatively, whales are increasing their presence as potential sellers.

According to CryptoQuants Exchange Whale Ratio indicator, the proportion of large inflows to exchanges out of total inflows is now at a one-year high.

Inflows sped up significantly as BTC/USD rose to $51,000 overnight on Thursday, and the implication could be that large-volume investors plan to take profits at the top end of Bitcoins current range.

It is better to watch out until BTC breaks $51k levels, one CryptoQuant analyst cautioned.

Despite misgivings, Bitcoin managed to preserve its higher levels into Friday, these previously forming a key line in the sand for bullish sentiment to return.

Whales, meanwhile, are not new potential sellers. As Cointelegraph reported earlier in the month, larger investors have diverged from smaller retail hodlers in terms of buying behavior.

CryptoQuant and others confirm that this is still the case, with exchange withdrawals conversely reflecting peak accumulation similar to September before the breakout to $69,000 all-time highs.

Related:Missed out on hot crypto stocks in 2021? It paid just to buy Bitcoin and Ethereum, data shows

Miners, too, are holding onto their newly released coins from block subsidies, with their reserves now at six-month highs.

Miners own more BTC than when BTC was at $69k, in fact, they added back all the BTC they net distributed since the drop from $69k, contributor Venturefounder noted.

Read the rest here:
Bitcoin needs to clear $51K to reduce the chance of new sell-off from BTC whales - Cointelegraph

The pro-bitcoin U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis has reportedly unveiled her plan to introduce a comprehensive crypto bill that will cover everything from how cryptocurrencies are taxed and categorized to consumer protections. The bill will also propose creating a new entity to oversee the digital asset market.

U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis is reportedly preparing to introduce a comprehensive crypto bill next year. The Republican senator from Wyoming explained that the bill will cover everything from how cryptocurrencies are taxed and categorized to consumer protections, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

The bill will provide clear guidance on which asset class a particular asset belongs to and will also establish a framework to regulate stablecoins, a senior aide for the senator told the news outlet. In addition, it will propose creating a new entity to oversee the crypto market that will operate under the joint jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Lummis is a member of the Senate Banking Committee. She has repeatedly said that bitcoin is a great store of value. The senator recently confirmed that she owns about five bitcoins and has no plan to sell them. Her BTC is part of a broad portfolio that includes her familys cattle ranches.

In October, Lummis said in Congress: Thank God for bitcoin, and other non-fiat currencies, that transcends the irresponsibility of governments, including our own.

Several bills have already been introduced in Congress with the intention of regulating the crypto sector. In August, U.S. Rep. Don Beyer introduced the Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act. The bill provides the SEC with authority over digital asset securities and the CFTC with authority over digital assets.

In April, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill introduced by pro-bitcoin Congressman Patrick McHenry which requires the SEC and the CFTC to establish a working group focused on digital assets.

In August, two U.S. lawmakers urged the chairman of the SEC and the acting chairman of the CFTC to establish a joint working group for the regulation of crypto assets. Other efforts to regulate the crypto industry include the Digital Commodity Exchange Act of 2020 (DCEA) and the Crypto-Currency Act of 2020.

What do you think about Senator Lummis planning to introduce a comprehensive cryptocurrency bill? Let us know in the comments section below.

A student of Austrian Economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open-source systems, network effects and the intersection between economics and cryptography.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Visit link:
Pro-Bitcoin Senator to Introduce Comprehensive Crypto Bill in US Regulation Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

A technical sell signal is about to appear on the Bitcoin (BTC) daily chart.

On Dec. 18, the BTC price will experience a death cross, a market indicator that occurs when a short-term moving average slips below a long-term moving average. In this case, Bitcoin's 20-day exponential moving average (20-day EMA) will close below its 200-day exponential moving average (200-day EMA).

The indicator may end up alerting traders and investors about a potential selloff in the coming sessions, given its history of predicting bear trends in advance. For instance, the 20-200 bearish crossover that appeared on May 30, 2021, was instrumental in crashing the BTC price from $36,500 to $28,800 in the next 24 days.

A similar death across also surfaced during March 2020's pandemic-led market crash, exactly a day before the Bitcoin price dropped from nearly $8,000 to below $4,000.

Bitcoin has been correcting consecutively across the last four weeks and looks poised to close the ongoing weekly session in losses, as well, primarily with theFederal Reserve taking more aggressive action on inflation.

In the last 30 days, the BTC price has fallen by nearly 17.50%, including a correction from its record high of $69,000 on Nov. 10. In doing so, the cryptocurrency briefly fell to $42,333, only to rebound sharply later, paring some losses, as shown in the chart below.

Nonetheless, the rebound did not turn into a bullish reversal the Bitcoin price has been trending lower after finding an interim resistance near $50,000, a psychological level.

Bitcoin's efforts to retest $50,000 for a bullish breakout face opposition from its descending channel's resistance trendline, combined with additional downside pressure from its 20-day EMA and 200-day EMA waves, which are also sitting near $50,000.

Related:Bitcoin bears lack 'balls' to continue selling into 2022 analyst

As a result, the path of least resistance for Bitcoin appears to the downside. And with the death cross looming, the cryptocurrency would likely continue trending inside the descending channel to test levels around $42,000 for a strong pullback move.

If the decline accelerates, the price may eye $40,000 next as its downside target.

Another leg lower would also push Bitcoin's daily relative strength index (RSI) into its oversold territory below 30, a buying signal.For now, the momentum indicator has been attempting to break above its downward sloping trendline, a move that has earlier predicted Bitcoin's local price bottoms.

On a shorter timeframe chart, the RSI has been consolidating sideways, anticipating that it would break out of the rectangle range to the upside. At the core of this optimistic outlook is a fractal from September 2021,shared by Mozzi, an independent crypto-market analyst.

"Bitcoin is following a similar structure from the end of September," the analystnoted on Saturday.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Follow this link:
Bitcoin 'death cross' that pushed BTC price to $28.8K reappears - Cointelegraph

The future of bitcoin is anyone's guess, but one academic has warned that the world's most popular cryptocurrency could fade out in the near future.

Eswar Prasad, senior professor of international trade policy at Cornell University, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" earlier this month: "Bitcoin itself may not last that much longer."

Bitcoin's price has been highly volatile over the last few years and in the last month the price of one coin has fallen from around $58,000 to less than $46,000. At 10:15 a.m. ET on Friday, the price of a bitcoin was $45,637.

While there used to be just a few cryptocurrencies, today there are hundreds and some of them are more useful and more environmentally-friendly than bitcoin.

Blockchain is theunderlying technologybehind most cryptocurrencies. It's essentially a digital ledger of virtual currency transactions which is distributed across a global network of computers.

"Bitcoin's use of the blockchain technology is not very efficient," said Prasad, who is the author of '"The Future of Money: How the Digital Revolution is Transforming Currencies and Finance."

The cryptocurrency "uses a validation mechanism for transactions that is environmentally destructive" and "doesn't scale up very well," he explained. Indeed, bitcoin's carbon footprint is bigger than the whole of New Zealand.

Prasad said some of the newer cryptocurrencies use blockchain technology far more efficiently than bitcoin does.

He believes blockchain technology will be "fundamentally transformative" in the way that finance is done and in the way we conduct our day-to-day transactions, like buying a house or buying a car.

"Given that bitcoin is not serving well as a medium of exchange, I don't think it's going to have any fundamental value other than whatever investor's faith leads it to have," Prasad said.

More generally, cryptocurrencies have "lit a fire under central banks to start thinking about issuing digital versions of their own currencies," Prasad said.

He added that such digital currencies could be beneficial as they may provide a low-cost payment option that everyone has access to, thereby increasing financial inclusion and potentially financial stability.

"Much as you might not like bitcoin, it has really set off a revolution that ultimately might benefit all of us either directly or indirectly," Prasad said.

Visit link:
Bitcoin 'may not last that much longer,' academic warns - CNBC

Coming every Saturday, Hodlers Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more a week on Cointelegraph in one link.

A recent report shows that Russia could potentially see a countrywide ban on cryptocurrency. Alternatively, its possible that crypto trading via regulated exchanges may continue under strict oversight.

On the one hand, Russias central bank is said to be behind a potential move to make crypto illegal in the country, according to Reuters. On the other hand, Anatoly Aksakov, who heads the Russian parliaments Committee on Financial Markets, publicly disclosed that the industry may continue to operate under regulations that would ensure greater tax compliance. However, Aksakov left open the possibility of an outright ban.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) now has a permanent chairman following approvals by the United States Senate. On Thursday, Rostin Behnam, who had been serving as acting chairman, was given the permanent position. The CFTC is one of three U.S. governing bodies responsible for crypto industry regulatory oversight.

Behnam has previously commented on the crypto space, noting that the CFTC should focus more on the sector. He noted in October: Given the size, the scope and the scale of this emerging market, how its interfacing and affecting retail customers, and with the scale of the growth being so rapid, potential financial stability risks in the future, I think its critically important to have a primary cop on the beat.

The CFTCs overall brass is also changing. In the coming months, four CFTC commissioner spots must be filled, which is a large number given that the regulatory body typically carries five commissioners.

New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) is now worth roughly $7 billion after the company successfully raised $1 billion from WestCap and other venture investors. Led by co-founder and CEO Robert Robby Gutmann, NYDIG is a company dedicated to providing access to investment opportunities centered around Bitcoin (BTC).

NYDIG plays a unique role in the industry, empowering companies of all types to incorporate Bitcoin in a secure and compliant way, WestCap partner Scott Ganeles said in a public statement announcing NYDIGs additional capital achievement. We are proud to partner with Robby and his outstanding NYDIG team as they forge new paths to accessibility and further accelerate Bitcoin adoption.

Sports apparel company Nike officially joined the Metaverse this week by acquiring virtual sneakers and collectibles brand RTFKT.

Prior to the move, Nike expressed strong interest in this emerging market by pursuing Metaverse-specific patent and trademark filings for its logo. The company also publicized a job search for people with specific Metaverse expertise.

Our plan is to invest in the RTFKT brand, serve and grow their innovative and creative community and extend Nikes digital footprint and capabilities, Nikes CEO and president John Donahoe said.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has decided to delay a verdict on two physically-backed Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) until February 2022. The Commission published its decision on Wednesday.

The two ETF applications were filed by Bitwise Asset Management and Grayscale. Whereas Bitwise aimed to introduce an entirely new spot Bitcoin ETF, Grayscale intended to create a spot offering by repurposing its current Grayscale Bitcoin Trust product.

The SEC has turned down multiple Bitcoin spot ETF applications in 2021. The Commission delayed one such product from WisdomTree earlier in 2021, only to deny it in December.

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $46,292, Ether (ETH) at $3,852 and XRP at $0.79. The total market cap is at $2.16 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are yearn.finance (YFI) at 52.51%, OKB (OKB) at 31.83% and Avalanche (AVAX) at 29.75%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Decred (DCR) at -22.85%, Theta Fuel (TFUEL) at -17.98% and BitTorrent (BTT) at -17.65%.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraphs market analysis.

DeFi is the most dangerous part of the crypto world. This is where the regulation is effectively absent, and no surprise its where the scammers and the cheats and the swindlers mix among part-time investors and first-time crypto traders. In DeFi, someone cant even tell if theyre dealing with a terrorist.

Elizabeth Warren, U.S. senator

I argue that we are winning [the digital currency] race because of the sum of free-market activity taking place inside the U.S. regulatory perimeter with digital currencies and blockchain-based financial services. The sum of these activities are advancing broad U.S. economic competitiveness and national security interests.

Dante Disparte, head of global policy and chief strategy officer at Circle

Stablecoins can certainly be a useful, efficient, consumer-serving part of the financial system if theyre properly regulated. Right now, they arent. They have the potential to scale, particularly if they were to be associated with one of the very large tech networks that exist.

Jerome Powell, U.S. Federal Reserve chair

Bitcoin is not a good substitute for transactional currency. Even though it was created as a silly joke, Dogecoin is better suited for transactions. The total transaction flow that you do with Dogecoin, like transactions per day, has much higher potential than Bitcoin.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla

[Crypto] companies have the cash and have been bidding away very senior talent who only have one or two years of crypto experience with offers that they cannot turn down.

Adrianna Huehnergarth, engagement manager for Heidrick & Struggles

The beauty of crypto is that you can be based anywhere. There is this community approach regardless of where you kick-start a flywheel from.

Matt Zhang, founder of Hivemind Capital Partners

Cryptocurrencies cannot become a means of payment.

Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput, governor for the Bank of Thailand

Bitcoins price has been on a rollercoaster the past week. The coin saw prices as high as almost $51,000, while also visiting levels below $46,000, based on Cointelegraphs BTC price index.

According to a report from Delphi Digital, Bitcoins price could finish out the year trading relatively sideways. The firm noted the recent spike in stablecoin transactions as reason to be cautious. Much like the May 2021 price crash, current market conditions are defined by much higher than normal stablecoin volumes, presumably as investors exit BTC positions and enter into stablecoins.

The most likely path forward for BTC in the short term is choppy or sideways action, Delphi Digital stated. However, any major risk-off event in the broader market could negatively impact the leading digital currency.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi suffered a Twitter account hack on Dec. 12. Although the nefarious party only had control of the account for a short period of time, they were able to send out a scam tweet from the account, proclaiming false news.

The hackers tweeted that India had picked up Bitcoin as an official currency a sizable lie considering the headlines El Salvador made in the lead-up to actually adopting BTC as legal tender in September 2021. The tweet sent out by the hackers included a lie about India purchasing hundreds of BTC, as well as an external link.

Modi also suffered a Twitter account hack in September 2020.

Hackers recently siphoned nearly $80 million in digital assets from crypto trading platform AscendEX. Estimates from analytics outfit PeckShield put the total number of stolen crypto assets at $77.7 million. The sum consists of $8.5 million worth of Polygon-based tokens, $9.2 million of Binance Smart Chain-based tokens and $60 million worth of Ethereum-based tokens.

The pillage affected the platforms hot wallet but not its cold storage amounts, as per a tweet from the crypto platform on Dec. 11. AscendEX also noted in the same tweet that customers who lost funds would be covered by the platform.

Coinbase, Kraken and several other crypto-involved companies received backlash from the United Kingdoms Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for certain advertisements. The ASA claimed the ads did not adequately provide viewers with proper risk warnings, and that they preyed on viewers who lacked crypto expertise.

One ad from Coinbase Europe noted the large profit outcome an early Bitcoin investment would have yielded if held until 2021. The ASA pushed back on the ad, essentially saying it made it look like the future would hold similar profit potential. The ASA also pointed out that the ad lacked an explanation that the future does not promise the same rewards reaped in the past.

NFTs are here to stay and the arrival of the Metaverse is only set to make their appeal and use even more popular.

Because the crypto space is largely a challenge to central banks, at least in a lot of peoples minds, then anything that happens in banking and finance is interesting to us.

When it was finally time to take off the mask and get on the plane home, it was weird.

See original here:
SEC delays spot Bitcoin ETF decisions, Nike throws its hat into Metaverse arena, and a crypto exchange gets hacked: Hodler's Digest, Dec. 12-18 -...

Billionaire investor Ray Dalio is impressed with bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, and its blockchain.

"It has been an amazing accomplishment for bitcoin to have achieved what it has done, from writing that program, not being hacked, having it work and having it adopted the way it has been," Dalio, founder of the world's largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, told MarketWatch on Wednesday.

"I believe in the blockchain technology. There's going to be that revolution, so it hasearned credibility."

Dalio reconfirmed that he owns "a little bit" of bitcoin, calling it "almost a younger generation's alternative to gold," he said. "Bitcoin is like gold, though gold is the well established blue-chip alternative to fiat money."

Similarly, bitcoin supporters see the asset as a digital gold, a store of value and a hedge against inflation.

"It has no intrinsic value, but it has imputed value, and it has therefore some merit," Dalio said.

By design, there is alimited supply of bitcoin. This scarcity iscentral to whybitcoin bulls argue for holding the cryptocurrency long-term as demand increases and supply declines, its value could theoretically appreciate.

However, Dalio continues to be concerned about the possibility of governments outlawing it.

"Bitcoin has a number of other issues. If itis a threat to governments, it will probably be outlawed in some placeswhen it becomes relatively attractive," he said. "It may not be outlawed in all places. I don't believe that central banks or major institutions will have a significant amount in it."

But, experts say it'd be quite difficult for a government to effectively ban bitcoin.

"I don't think even a concerted effort among different countries and different central banks could actually shut down bitcoin," James Ledbetter, editor of fintech newsletter FIN and a CNBC contributor, previously toldCNBC Make It. "I don't think that's technologically possible. But there are ways that bitcoin could be regulated."

Nonetheless, "I'm not an expert on bitcoin," Dalio told MarketWatch,"but I think it has some merit as a small portion of a portfolio."

Sign up now: Get smarter about your money and career with our weekly newsletter

Don't miss: Billionaire Ray Dalio says he owns bitcoin, and its 'greatest risk is its success'

Original post:
Billionaire Ray Dalio: Bitcoin is like 'a younger generations alternative to gold' and has 'merit' - CNBC

What happened

Following a day of sell-offs on Friday, the cryptocurrency market is posting some recovery momentum on Saturday. As of 10 a.m. ET, Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) was up roughly 3.3% from the stock market's closing bell on Friday. Meanwhile, Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) and Dogecoin's (CRYPTO:DOGE) tokens were up roughly 6.4% and 6%, respectively, over the same period.

Crypto prices began soaring in October and continued to gain ground until momentum started reversing in mid-November. The overall cryptocurrency market has continued to move lower in December as investors have weighed regulatory risk factors and the possibility that valuations for digital tokens may be trending toward a more prolonged bearish cycle. That being said, the cryptocurrency market actually looks relatively calm at the moment.

Image source: Getty Images.

Bitcoin hit a lifetime high of $68,990.90 per token last month, but the token dropped below the $50,000 per token mark early in December's trading and now trades at roughly $46,300 per coin. The cryptocurrency is down roughly 23% over the last month and approximately 33% from its high.

Bitcoin has posted a strong performance this year and is still the largest cryptocurrency by far, but there are signs that the market is shifting toward a different category of token. While Bitcoin can be used as a currency or a speculative investment vehicle, most of the excitement in the market appears to be building around tokens that are connected to service-and-development-focused blockchain networks and applications.

In dollar terms, Ethereum has been leading the charge on the crypto market's rotation into application-backed cryptocurrencies. The price for the network's ether token has surged amid increasing adoption for the network's smart-contract and application-building features, and some investors and analysts see this momentum leading to "the flippening" -- the moment when Ethereum's market cap surpasses Bitcoin's. Ether's loss of just 8% over the last month of bearish crypto momentum suggests that the token is gaining strength relative to Bitcoin.

Meanwhile, Dogecoin is down roughly 29% over the last month and roughly 75% from its high mark. Dogecoin's price per token peaked at roughly $0.69 back in May, but it quickly lost ground as investors took profits on the heels of explosive gains. The token has struggled to regain ground as investors have generally become more risk-averse and attention has shifted to other meme tokens.

Even with dramatic pricing volatility, 2021 has been a year of fantastic returns for the broader cryptocurrency market.

Bitcoin Price data by YCharts

Despite lagging other cryptocurrencies that posted even stronger gains this year, Bitcoin has managed to put up strong gains across 2021's trading, and it remains the top cryptocurrency. The token currently has a market cap of roughly $892 billion, while Ethereum's ether token has a market cap of roughly $472 billion. Dogecoin's even more incredible gains have helped it reach a market cap of $23 billion, and it currently ranks as the 11th largest cryptocurrency.

As we move through the end of 2021, investors are trying to parse how to weigh risks and find emerging opportunities with digital tokens and blockchain-based projects.While Federal Reserve policy, government stimulus, and other economic factors are generally thought to have a much greater impact on the pricing of stocks and real estate, these factors also appear to be having a significant impact on the cryptocurrency market.

Just as the ability to secure low-interest loans has filtered through to push equity prices higher, it's likely also played a significant role in the strong bull market phase in the crypto market over the last year. With the Fed potentially raising interest rates three times next year and easing off stimulus spending, it's possible that crypto valuations could face bearish pressures if investors generally become more risk-averse. For investors looking for exposure to the cryptocurrency space, sell-offs could present worthwhile buying opportunities, but dollar-cost averaging may be less risky than making large investments all at once.

This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the official recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium advisory service. Were motley! Questioning an investing thesis -- even one of our own -- helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer.

Read more:
Why Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin Are Gaining Today - The Motley Fool

Newport, a seaside city in Wales, is famous for its docks and industrial heritage and for allegedly having half a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin buried in its local landfill.

Former IT worker James Howell mined the cryptocurrency back in 2013, well before its value skyrocketed. In a mix-up, he accidentally threw away the hard drive its access key was stored on.

"I found a blank 20GB hard drive in my drawer instead of thousands of Bitcoin," Howell told CBS News.

Since then, he's been lobbying the local government to allow him to excavate tons of trash in the landfill as part of an attempt to find it. But local officials are refusing to let him.

"There are companies out there that dig at the bottom of the ocean for treasure. Digging a landfill is a damn sight bit easier than digging at the bottom of the ocean," said Howell.

He said he's contacted experts from around the world as part of his attempt to recover his huge Bitcoin fortune. Despite offering Newport City Council a cut of the coins if he were to find them, it continues to refuse the proposal citing environmental damage it could cause and that the council's "duty is to provide services to our residents" something it said Howell's plan would get in the way of.

Still, Howell is determined to keep trying to find the hard drive.

"I'm not gonna to give up on it, because it's you know, like I said, it's a lost lottery ticket," he said. " A lottery ticket would disintegrate but a hard drive doesn't. It's not going anywhere."

Trending News

For Breaking News & Analysis Download the Free CBS News app

Continued here:
Man seeks to excavate landfill that allegedly has half a billion dollars worth of bitcoin - CBS News