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Bitcoin (BTC) is approaching the end of 2022 at levels not seen in over two years — what do traders think will happen next?

BTC price reeling from USD strength

Currently down 15% in Q4 and over 60% year-to-date, BTC/USD has few bullish allies as 2023 looms.

Struggling to recover from the ongoing FTX scandal and associated fallout, the largest cryptocurrency giving back all the gains seen since late 2020 is indicative of the crypto market as a whole.

Risk assets are in a precious position themselves, as Cointelegraph reported, while eyes are also on the strength of the U.S. dollar going into the new year.

Cointelegraph takes a look at the diverging opinions among some popular traders when it comes to what BTC price action could do in Q1, 2023.

Ether (ETH) has been ranging near $1,200 since Dec. 17, but an ascending trend has been quietly gaining strength after 50 consecutive days.

The pattern points to $1,330 or higher by March 2023, making it essential for bulls to defend the current $1,180 support.

The anxiously awaited migration to a Proof of Stake in September 2022 paved the way for additional layer-2 integration and lower transaction costs overall. Layer-2 technologies such as Optimistic Rollups have the potential to improve Ethereum scalability by 100x and provide off-chain network storage.

Developers anticipate that the network upgrades scheduled for 2023 introducing large portable data bundles can boost the capacity of rollups by up to 100x. Moreover, in December 2021, Vitalik Buterin shared that the end game was for Ethereum to act as a base layer, with users "storing their assets in a ZK-rollup (zero knowledge) running a full Ethereum Virtual Machine."

An unexpected move negatively affecting the competing smart chain platform Solana (SOL) has likely helped to fuel Ethereum investors' expectations.

Solana (SOL), the cryptocurrency once supported by Sam Bankman-Fried, pared some losses on Dec. 30, a day after falling to its lowest level since February 2021.

Solana price down 97% from November 2021 peak 

On the daily chart, SOL's price rebounded to around $10.25, up over 20% from its previous day's low of approximately $8. 

Nevertheless, the intraday recovery did little to offset the overall bear trend — down 97% from its record peak of $267.50 in November 2021, and down over 20% in the past week. 

But while the year has been brutal for markets, Solana now joins the ranks of the worst-performing tokens of 2022, namely FTX Token and LUNA, which are down around 98%. 

SOL price could recover 50%

However, the latest Solana price rebound hints at the possibility of more upside heading into 2023.

Solana (SOL), the cryptocurrency once supported by Sam Bankman-Fried, pared some losses on Dec. 30, a day after falling to its lowest level since February 2021.

Solana price down 97% from November 2021 peak 

On the daily chart, SOL's price rebounded to around $10.25, up over 20% from its previous day's low of approximately $8. 

Nevertheless, the intraday recovery did little to offset the overall bear trend — down 97% from its record peak of $267.50 in November 2021, and down over 20% in the past week. 

But while the year has been brutal for markets, Solana now joins the ranks of the worst-performing tokens of 2022, namely FTX Token and LUNA, which are down around 98%. 

SOL price could recover 50%

However, the latest Solana price rebound hints at the possibility of more upside heading into 2023.

The developers of Dogecoin (DOGE) have denied rumors that the network is immediately switching to proof-of-stake (PoS), saying that they are merely planning to release a proposal on the topic. The repudiation came on Dec. 29, from the Twitter account of Michi Lumin, Principal Engineer for the Dogecoin Foundation.

Lumin stated that the Dogecoin Foundation does not have the power to upgrade the network without the consent of validators, explaining:

“It is not possible for, nor is it planned for, an individual, organization, or body to "move" or ‘shift’ or ‘change’ #dogecoin to PoS. All that can be done is: it can be outlined, perhaps coded, and given to the community (and validators) to decide to take up or not[…]the repeated sensationalist (to get views/follows) refrain of people saying that #dogecoin ‘is moving to PoS’ is ridiculous, and absolutely not how it works or can work. It will not and can not be done by edict, or force…”

The denial comes after the Rabid Mining Youtube channel had published a video on Dec. 28 titled “What if Dogecoin Moves to PoS?” It was shared on Twitter and Reddit with the comment, “DOGECOIN's Merge To POS Will Kill Scrypt Miners profits by over 60%.”

The video did not say that the Dogecoin team could change the network by “force.” However, it mentioned that “it looks like the Dogecoin Foundation actually has Vitalik on the board as an advisor, and they have it stated that they’re gonna move to proof-of-stake.” The video cautioned miners not to invest in scrypt miners because “all scrypt miners are gonna die” once Dogecoin adopts PoS.