According to CoinDesk: Bitcoin (BTC) started the trading week with slight elevation, posting prices above $41,000. Ethereum (ETH) exhibited a similar trend trading over the $2,100 mark.
Within the previous 12 hours, token-tracked futures have seen $103.5 million in liquidations, with $95 million of these from longing, signifying bets on higher prices. The total liquidations incorporated the liquidation of bitcoin positions worth $33 million, with $29 million from long bitcoin positions.
Lucy Hu, Senior Analyst at a Hong-Kong-based digital asset management firm, Metalpha, stated that despite the recent Ledger hack, the broader market seems resilient, bolstered by factors like impending rate cuts and the burgeoning interest sparked by ordinals.
Hu expressed optimism over Bitcoin's long-term growth momentum, notwithstanding the slight negative sentiment in the DeFi space resulting from the Ledger hack. She also noted the Bitcoin Ordinals impacted encouragingly on Bitcoin miners.
Year-end predictions for bitcoin for 2024-2025 remain optimistic despite the current correction phase the asset is experiencing. Reports anticipate the price of Bitcoin to reach around $75K to $80K by early 2024.
Meanwhile, the surge of memecoins has induced escalating gas fees on Ethereum and several other Layer-1 chains, such as Avalanche. Avalanche alone has generated $5 million in fees within the last 24 hours, while Ethereum, despite being significantly larger in market capitalization, has accumulated $13.52 million.
Some Layer-1 tokens have experienced sharper declines than Bitcoin or Ethereum, with AVAX down by 6% and Solana's SOL token decreasing by 4%.
