Crypto On Dec 31: Bitcoin Back Above $48K, Top Altcoins Rise Too

From a brief dip to around $46.8K on Thursday morning to the breach of the $48K mark on Friday morning, Bitcoin offered a befitting farewell to a gyrating year in which the crypto king reached breakout territories, yet ended up yielding about 30% of market share to altcoins. The broader crypto market rose about 3% to $2.27 trillion as of a.m. 5 a.m. ET Friday.

Bitcoin rose 3% to $48,327.33, still down 6% from a week earlier, data from CoinMarketCap showed. Ethereum rose at a similar pace to $3,792.64 to greet the New Year when it is expected to come out as a green coin by switching to the electricity-saving proof-of-stake concept. The second-biggest coin could widen its investor base with the paradigm shift.

Bitcoin bulls are still betting on the coin touching the $100K mark in the next couple of years, but institutional investors are beginning to see it as a risk-on asset due to the high volatility. Major investor Microstrategy, however, bought $94 million Bitcoin during the recent crash.

“If BTC is able to reclaim ~$48,500 as support by the end of the week then BTC could once again revisit ~$52,000 resistance,” crypto analyst Rekt Capital wrote.

Binance Coin, which eclipsed the leading coins with its spectacular 1,344% rise in 2021, was trading up 1% at $525.65 on the last day of the year.

Terra rose 5% to $89.09 while Avalanche rose 4% to $106.66 in the last 24 hours.

Meme coin Dogecoin rose 1.5% to $0.1749 while rival Shiba Inu was up about 2%.