Decentral Block Post

As the year comes to an end, investors will be keenly watching for a Santa Claus rally on Wall Street as many believe that if the rally does not happen, the next year may either remain flat or turn negative. 

Jurrien Timmer, director of global macro at asset management giant Fidelity Investments, tweeted on Dec. 19 that the United States equities markets may remain “sideways” and choppy in 2023. He expects “one or more retests of the 2022 low, but not necessarily much worse than that.”

The cryptocurrency market has been largely correlated with the S&P 500 in 2022. Unless both markets decouple, the sideways or negative action in the equities markets may not bode well for the cryptocurrency market.

Analysts remain divided on the future price action for Bitcoin (BTC). While some expect a recovery, others anticipate another leg lower. Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to determine the path of least resistance in the short term.

BTC/USDT

Although Bitcoin has been trading below the 20-day exponential moving average ($16,985) since Dec. 16, the bears have not been able to capitalize on this situation. This suggests that lower levels are attracting buyers.

NBA Top Shot is a nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace that enables basketball fans to buy, sell and trade NBA-themed digital collectibles.

These collectibles are "Moments" — NFTs of NBA video clips and digital art — available per their degree of rarity. In other words, users can trade NFTs that feature anything from a winning three-pointe from Luka Dončić to a dunk from Lebron James, depending on their availability.

The concept is akin to traditional sports collectible where fans attempt to acquire the rarest of items associated with teams, with an aim to either collect or sell it later at a higher price. Except, in the case of NFTs, these collectibles are digital — unique cryptographic tokens that exist on a blockchain and theoretically cannot be replicated.

How does NBA Top Shot work?

NBA Top Shot is officially licensed by the NBA, the NBA Players Association, and Dapper Labs. The marketplace runs on the FLOW blockchain, which Dapper Labs built as a developer-friendly ledger to support "the next generation of games, apps, and digital assets."

As explained above, the NBA Top Shot platform functions like trading cards. It starts with the NBA licensing its reels and digital art to Dapper Labs. In turn, Dapper Labs uses the footage to create Moments as NFTs.

Bitcoin (BTC) price lost 11.3% between Dec. 14 and Dec. 18 after briefly testing the $18,300 resistance.

The move followed a seven-day correction of 8% in the S&P 500 futures after United States Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell issued hawkish statements after raising the interest rate on Dec. 14.

Bitcoin price retreats to channel support

Macroeconomic trends have been the main driver of recent movements. For instance, the latest bounce from the five-week-long ascending channel support at $16,400 has been attributed to the Central Bank of Japan’s efforts to contain inflation.

The Bank of Japan increased the limit on government bond yields on Dec. 20, which are now trading at levels unseen since 2015.

However, not everything has been positive for Bitcoin, as miners have struggled with the hash rate nearing an all-time high and increased energy costs. For example, on Dec. 20, Bitcoin miner Greenidge reached an agreement with its creditor to restructure $74 million worth of debt — although the deal requires the miner to sell nearly 50% of it equipment.

Bitcoin (BTC) divided traders yet again on Dec. 21 as sideways BTC price action split opinion on the future.

$17,500 becomes popular BTC price target

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it acted within a tight range just below $17,000.

A single brief spike above the $17,000 mark failed to last, the pair returning to familiar territory from the past week.

For popular traders, there was a lack of consensus, with some calling for an eventual breakout to the upside and others demanding a rapid fall toward $10,000.

“I’d want it to hold $16.7K in order to see continuation on Bitcoin,” Michaël van de Poppe, founder and CEO of trading firm Eight, told Twitter followers on Dec. 20: