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JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is being hauled over the hot coals by the crypto community on X (formerly Twitter) after claiming Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency’s “only true use case” is to facilitate crime.

“The only true use case for it is criminals, drug traffickers, money laundering, tax avoidance,” Dimon said in a hearing before the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on Dec. 5. “If I were the government, I’d close it down.”

But crypto pundits quickly pointed out the hypocrisy in Dimon’s statements, highlighting that JPMorgan is the second-largest penalized bank, having paid $39.3 billion in fines across 272 violations since 2000, according to Good Jobs First’s violation tracker.

About $38 billion of these fines came under Dimon’s watch, who has been CEO since 2005.

“Talk about being a fucking hypocrite!” said crypto lawyer John Deaton in a Dec. 6 post on X. 

Bitcoin (BTC) has been on a tear, rising more than 10% this week. This shows that traders are urgently scrambling to buy Bitcoin as they anticipate the price to rally further. CoinShares data shows that investors have pumped in more than $1.44 billion into Bitcoin investment products in the past ten weeks.

The expectation is that the approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) will attract huge investments. Animoca Brands CEO Robby Yung, while speaking at the Next Block Expo conference in Berlin, said that Bitcoin ETFs could generate a potential income of “$10 to $12 billion.”

While long-term investors have been accumulating Bitcoin, the short-term holders (STHs) holding coins for 155 days or less have been busy booking profits in December. CryptoSlate research and data analyst James Van Straten, while sharing a Glassnode chart on X (formerly Twitter), said that STHs in profit sent roughly $5 billion worth of Bitcoin to exchanges in the first four days of December.

Could Bitcoin continue its up-move and reach $48,000, or will profit-booking set in? Let’s analyze the charts of the top 10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin has been in a strong uptrend. The momentum picked up after the bulls catapulted the price above $40,000. The minor resistance at $41,160 has been cleared with ease.

Debt Box and other defendants in a United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit want the case tossed after a court found the agency lied to secure a temporary restraining order against them.

“The SEC got this case wrong. Badly wrong,” lawyers for Digital Licensing, which does business as Debt Box, told Judge Robert Shelby of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah in a Dec. 4 motion to dismiss. “The SEC should not be allowed to continue to spin a false narrative to avoid dismissal.”

The SEC won a temporary restraining order to freeze Debt Box assets on Aug. 3, claiming the firm would remove evidence and secretly transfer assets overseas if they were notified the order would be imposed on them.

The agency accused the firm of perpetrating a $50 million fraudulent crypto scheme. Debt Box sold software mining licenses tied to real-world assets, which the SEC claimed were unregistered securities. The defendants refute this claim.

“Not only are such allegations false, but they also fail to meet the basic pleading standards,” it wrote in its latest motion.

PayPal’s introduction of its native stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), has sparked heated debates within the crypto industry regarding its possible sway on payments and wider crypto adoption.

While this step seems to be a big jump toward accepting cryptocurrencies in regular finance, some industry observers advise caution. They underline the hurdles and limitations that could slow down broader adoption.

What is PYUSD?

This initiative aims to bridge the fiat and digital currency realms for consumers, merchants and developers. PayPal CEO Dan Schulman highlighted the need for a stable digital-fiat conduit. PYUSD facilitates various transactions, including payments, fund transfers between PayPal and compatible external wallets, and crypto conversions:

“The shift toward digital currencies requires a stable instrument that is both digitally native and easily connected to fiat currency like the U.S. dollar. Our commitment to responsible innovation and compliance, and our track record delivering new experiences to our customers, provides the foundation necessary to contribute to the growth of digital payments through PayPal USD.” 

The coin is designed to mitigate payment frictions in virtual environments, expedite value transfer, and simplify digital asset engagement by being a safer alternative to the fluctuating nature of most cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin (BTC) is trying to sustain above the overhead resistance of $38,000 for the second consecutive day and start the next leg of the uptrend. The excitement among market observers may have increased after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) delayed its decision on the applications of Franklin Templeton and Hashdex exchange-traded funds.

Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart speculated in a X (formerly Twitter) post that the SEC may have taken this step “to line every applicant up for potential approval by the Jan. 10, 2024 deadline.”

While many analysts believe that the ETF listing will be a watershed moment for Bitcoin, Genesis Trading head of derivatives Joshua Lim cautioned in a X post that traditional finance investors have already bought the rumor and may exit the trade close to the ETF announcement when retail tries to get in.

However, the macroeconomic conditions in early 2024 may limit the downside. Pershing Square Capital Management CEO and founder Bill Ackman said in an interview with Bloomberg that the U.S. Federal Reserve will cut rates sooner than people expect. He anticipates rate cuts to start in Q1 instead of the market expectations of the middle of the year.

Could Bitcoin and altcoins witness a shallow correction before resuming their uptrend?

The exploiter behind the $46 million crypto theft against KyberSwap has demanded its execs and tokenholders ease up on the hostilities, threatening to push out negotiations until everyone is “more civil.”

In an on-chain message addressed to KyberSwap executives, tokenholders and liquidity providers on Nov. 28, the exploiter said they plan to release a statement around a potential treaty with KyberSwap on Nov. 30 — but won’t do it if hostilities continue.

“I said I was willing to negotiate. In return, I have received (mostly) threats, deadlines, and general unfriendliness from the executive team,” they said.

“Under the assumption that I am treated with further hostility, we can reschedule for a later date, when we all feel more civil,” they warned.

The team behind KyberSwap — a cross-chain decentralized exchange — initially suggested a bounty deal where the hacker returns 90% of the funds across all exploits, allowing the hacker to keep the remaining 10%.

Bitcoin (BTC)-related investment products have become the “main beneficiary” of recent investor interest in crypto amid growing anticipation of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval in the United States.

A total of $1.76 billion of investors’ funds have flowed into crypto products over 10 weeks, making up the most significant inflows over such a period since October 2021 when Bitcoin futures launched, according to a Dec. 4 report from CoinShares’ head of research James Butterfill.

CoinShares’ weekly reports over the past 10 weeks show that at least $1.44 billion of inflows went to Bitcoin investment products over the period, with the price of Bitcoin jumping from $26,600 to $37,700 during the period.

Meanwhile, the week ending Dec. 1 saw $176.3 million worth of inflows into crypto investment products. Bitcoin investment products were the “main beneficiary,” said Butterfill, recording $132.8 million of inflows over the past week, while Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) products tallied $30.8 million and 4.3 million, respectively.

Related: Bitcoin prices should ‘logically’ correct in January, but crypto’s a ‘wild card’

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has been given the green light to sell around $873 million of trust assets, with proceeds used to repay creditors impacted by the exchange’s collapse in 2022, according to a Nov. 29 filing in a Delaware bankruptcy court.

The $873 million in assets will be sourced from FTX’s stakes in various trusts issued by crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments, valued at $807 million, and custody service provider Bitwise, valued at $66 million.

While the court document references a total of $744 million in assets, this is due to the valuation figure being as of Oct. 25, 2023. The assets have increased in value since. 

The approval comes nearly four weeks after FTX debtors filed a motion to Judge John Dorsey on Nov. 3 requesting the sale of the six cryptocurrency trusts, including the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) and Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund.

FTX currently owns over 22 million units of GBTC, Grayscale’s flagship Bitcoin product, now worth $691 million, while its 6.3 million shares of ETHE are now worth around $106 million.

More than three-quarters of all blockchain games launched in the last five years are dead in the water, according to a recent study from CoinGecko.

Out of 2,817 games launched between 2018 and 2023, which were included in the study, only 690 of them still have a somewhat active player base.

CoinGecko defines a “failed” Web3 game as one where the 14-day moving average number of active users drops 99% or more from its peak.

While 2021 saw the highest number of blockchain games launched in a single year with 738 games, the following year — marred by major crypto collapses, saw the highest number of games to fizzle out, with 742 failing in a single year.

This puts the average failure rate of Web3 games at around 80% for any given year since 2018, according to CoinGecko.

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) surged above their respective overhead resistance levels on Dec. 4, indicating that the bulls are in no mood to slow down. The higher the price goes without a meaningful correction, the greater the feeling of missing out among traders. When traders chase prices higher, it could lead to a blow-off top before a correction sets in.

Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit said in its 4th quarter report that institutional traders held 35% of their assets in Bitcoin, 15% in Ether and a large portion kept 45% of their assets are in stablecoins. Only a miniscule 5% was held in rest of the altcoins.

This shows that there is still enough firepower available with institutional investors to buy the cryptocurrency of their choice by selling stablecoins.

Matrixport research head Markus Thielen said in a recent note that the three previous crypto bear markets were followed by a three-year bull cycle, and this time is going to be no different, with 2023 being the first year. Thielen anticipates Bitcoin to reach $60,000 by April and $125,000 by the end of 2024.

Could bulls hold on to the gains in Bitcoin and select altcoins, or will higher levels attract aggressive selling by the bears? Let’s analyze the charts to find out.