The Bitcoin price remained stagnant around $49k for most part of the day. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was looking to get to $50k earlier on in the day as the index reached as high as $49.6k. However, that proved to be too much to ask and the index is below $49k once again. Altcoins on the other hand had a mixed day overall as some posted big gains while still others posted smaller ones. More on that later on.

In other news, popular trader Michael Van de Poppe believes that the first breakthrough needed to restart the bull run has now happened as the crypto has recovered above $49k. However, he also added that there are further breakthroughs that are needed to complete a trend change. More on that later on.

The government of El Salvador has purchased 21 BTC ($1.06 million) to commemorate an interesting day. According to a tweet by the pro-crypto president Nayib Bukele, the country has bought 21 BTC in the 21st day of the 21st year of the 21st century. The tiny Central American nation’s covered surface area is also 21,000 Sq Km. The announcement by Bukele means that the country now owns more than 1220 in Bitcoin.

Elon Musk has stated that his Neuralink concept is better than the whole Metaverse initiatives around the globe according to a recent interview with Babylon Bee. He particularly singled out the concept of Virtual Reality (VR) and has stated that he doesn’t believe there will be a future just full of these VR headsets because of their effects on eyesight. He believes that his Neuralink concept can achieve just that but it doesn’t have the kind of buzzwordiness attached to it. Musk has long been critical of several interesting ideas on tech. Some of these criticisms have been proven to be right while still others have been proven to be wrong.

The Singapore financial watchdog (MAS) has rejected crypto licenses to over 100 crypto firms this year alone. The MAS has been open about getting new companies into the country especially when it comes to cryptocurrencies but it is also looking to protect customers and investors and therefore the bar is being set quite high, even in an apparently crypto-friendly country. 

According to a recent claim, Pakistanis own more than $20 billion in crypto assets. The claim was made by the President of the Federation of the Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) and he also urged the government of the country to come up with a regulatory process similar to neighboring India’s. 

Bitcoin Steady at $49k

Bitcoin largely remained within earshot of $49k for most parts of the day as a move to $50k failed yet again. The cryptocurrency was looking to embark upon a “Santa rally” but has once again stalled its progress and is now sitting at lower levels. 

The last 24 hours started with Bitcoin at around $48.7k. It remained within $800 of this for the rest of the day, which shows the low volatility currently being experienced in the industry. It reached a 24 hour high of as much as $49.55k at one point in the day at 3:50 AM but that was about it. 

Going forwards, Bitcoin is currently toying with the $50k resistance but it has become a psychological resistance as well and bulls haven’t been able to go above it convincingly for the last month or so. Now there is another opportunity and green signals are there but the market is very quiet at the moment. The bulls need to act fast enough to kickstart a santa rally. 

The total market capitalization of Bitcoin was around $923 billion and its share of the proceedings was 40.40%.

Altcoins Post Mixed Gains

Other cryptocurrencies aka altcoins posted some mixed gains throughout the day. Notable recent gainers continued with Avalanche (AVAX), Ripple (XRP,), Polkadot (DOT), Shiba Inu (SHIBA, ), Polygon (MATIC,) and Chainlink (LINK,) all posted gains. 

In Other News…..

Dutch Analyst Believes First Breakthrough has been Achieved

Popular Dutch trader and analyst Michael Van de Poppe believes that Bitcoin has achieved the first breakthrough needed to restart the bullish proceedings. However, he does state that there are several further breakthroughs that are needed to achieve a complete change of trend.

He tweeted:

“The first breakthrough has happened on Bitcoin. But, we still need to break enough levels to state that we’re bullish…, “Overall, a breakthrough at $50.5-51.5K and I’m convinced. Also, 2022 should become a great year overall.”

So, Van de Poppe among others believes that early 2022 will be a great year for the crypto sector but has almost given up on the remaining eight days of the 2021. It seems like a santa rally is going to be difficult to pull off this time around. 

Bitcoin is currently fighting to hold on the $46k price level. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization had yet another slightly bearish day earlier today as the price index inched downwards, but not by much. Altcoins on the other hand were also slightly bearish for most part of the day apart from a few exceptions. More on that later on. 

In other news, the US government is seriously looking to issue new stablecoin guidelines. A senior US treasury official recently stated the desire to regulate the digital USD sector with or without the support from the US Congress. 

A new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that around 0.01% of big Bitcoin addresses aka whales have control of more than 27% of the entire supply of the digital currency. While this amount (around 5 million Bitcoin) is still in the minority of the overall cryptocurrency supply, it still shows that big crypto owners exert a considerable amount of influence on the supply dynamics. However, this doesn’t accurately reflect the crypto’s ownership as many of the big holders are actually cryptocurrency exchanges who have custody control of other people’s crypto. With time, Bitcoin’s ownership is expected to get more distributed while with fiat currency, the opposite is more likely to happen.

The Indian state government of Telangana is looking to promote distributed technology within its jurisdiction with a new blockchain acceleration program. The move is being done in partnership with Coinswitch Kuber and Lumos Labs. While Telangana is looking to promote the sector, the response from the federal government is still mixed overall with some sections calling for a blanket ban while others advocating for leniency.

Big fund manager and former critic of cryptocurrencies Ray Dalio believes that he is genuinely impressed on how Bitcoin has survived over the last decade. He is ending the year with a positive outlook for the digital currency despite the recent market woes that have resulted in the digital currency shedding more than 35% of its value from a new high of $69k. 

An educational book launched to guide government policy makers in the United States has raised 5 times more money than its initial goal on Kickstarter. The book is titled Bitcoin and the American Dream: The New Monetary Technology Transcending Our Political Divide. The objective is to use simplified language to explain key political stakeholders on how the crypto sector is changing the world and it makes America’s cause in the scheme of things. 

After the more recent drop in crypto price index that has resulted in the index drop below $46k, experts now believe that only a Christmas miracle can reignite the Bitcoin bull run during the last 10 days of 2021. More on that later on.

Bitcoin Hovering Around $46k

Bitcoin is currently hovering right around $46k at press time. The cryptocurrency endured yet another slightly bearish day earlier today as the index remained below the $47k level for a major part of the day.

The last 24 hours started with Bitcoin at around $47k. It traded sideways for a while around the figure but the bulls didn’t appear threatening at all. Eventually, the index started moving downwards at 6:15 AM in the morning and hasn’t recovered ever since. It posted a 24-hour low of around $45.6k at 3:15 PM later in the day before recovering ever so slightly back to $46k at press time.

Going forward, Bitcoin is currently engulfed in a slight bearish bias that is proving to be hard to get out of. But, further downward action has also been hard to come by and the cryptocurrency hasn’t been eager to go below $46k as well, thus locking the proceedings in a tight range. The equation, therefore, remains quite the same for the digital currency. The bulls need to rise strongly and pull the index out of its current abyss by moving above $50k convincingly. The bears, however, are more in their comfort zone and are continuously bringing the price down, albeit slowly. They need to make a move for $42k and change the long-term bullish trend. Some analysts are predicting a big price dump but that is not supported by on-chain analytics as of now.

The total market capitalization of Bitcoin was around $875 billion and its share of the proceedings was 40.54%.

Altcoins Remain Slightly Bearish

Other cryptocurrencies aka altcoins also largely posted slightly bearish results apart from a few exceptions. The major gainers included Terra (LUNA, 8%) and Ripple (XRP, 3%). The latter rose much higher earlier in the day but couldn’t hold on to it. Most of the remaining altcoins posted negative price changes anywhere between -1 and -6%.

In Other News…..

Bitcoin’s Resurgence Can Only be Christmas Miracle Now

Bitcoin’s recent woes mean that the cryptocurrency is heading into Christmas with a bearish bias and there are no signs that things could change during the last 10 days of the year. If it does, it might end up becoming a real Christmas miracle that is for sure. 

Instead, many analysts are predicting a big price dump in the coming days, however, according to Willy Woo, Michael Von de Poppe and Peter Brandt who correctly predicted previous, crashes, such a move needs to be supported by on-chain analytics and right now, there aren’t any. 

On December 20, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a civil action aiming to return more than $150 million stolen from Sony by an employee and converted to Bitcoin (BTC). The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) discovered the misappropriation.

Announcing the decision, the DOJ said that it intends to guard with the aim of returning the “funds that were allegedly stolen from” a Sony Group subsidiary. The DOJ added that the FBI followed the money to Bitcoin when investigating the theft.

According to available information, a Sony employee received the funds in May and changed it to the leading cryptocurrency. At the time, the stolen amount translated to more than 3,800 BTCs. The stash is worth more than 189 million USD at the time of writing.

However, it wasn’t until the start of this month that the “funds were seized by law enforcement.” The US Justice Department identified the rogue employee as Rei Ishii. Ishii served with Sony Life Insurance Company, a company owned by Sony Group.

It’s believed that the employee intercepted the millions in USD when in transit between accounts.

The DOJ thinks that Ishii used cooked transactions details to prevent the amount from arriving in a company-owned account to his own bank account. Next, the employee traded it for the king coin.

Don’t “Rely on” Crypto to Hide Dirty Money

Since Sony is a Tokyo-based company, Japanese law enforcement agencies such as the National Police and Prosecutors Unit contributed to the investigations.

Randy Grossman, acting United States Attorney, commented on the case noting that it’s their “intent to return” the funds. He added that malicious actors shouldn’t “rely on” virtual currencies “to hide” dirty money.

According to Grossman, the US works closely with other regulatory bodies worldwide to “retrieve stolen funds” and stop criminals on their tracks.

A recent CBNC report indicated that the United States government had nabbed more crypto this year than in 2019. Jarod Koopman, an executive at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), told CNBC that the increase in seized crypto stands at roughly 1,700 times.

Koopman revealed that in 2019, the IRS seized virtual assets worth approximately $700K. In 2020, the amount rose to 137 million USD and later shot up to 1.2 billion US dollars in 2021.

The US government is known to offer great discounts on confiscated Bitcoin and other cryptos. The next bunch marked for auctioning includes crypto worth more than 50 million USD seized from the BitConnect saga.

US Criminal System Rules: Investigate, Confiscate, Sell, Deploy

Unlike other such crypto sales, proceeds from the sale will go to defrauded BitConnect investors.

With a growing amount of seized cryptos, the US government contracted private parties to handle the storage and sale. However, an ex-cybercrime prosecutor, Jud Welle, told CNBC that “the government is usually more than a few steps behind the criminals when it comes to innovation and technology.”

Welle attributed the slow pace to a lack of crypto and blockchain technology education in the “basic training.”

According to CNBC, the US criminal justice system handles cryptos in three stages. The first involves investigating and confiscating, then followed by sale, and lastly deployment of proceeds from the sale.

As the DOJ seeks court orders to retrieve Sony millions changed to Bitcoin, Blockstream’s CSO, Samson Mow, has outlined a key condition to be met for the leading crypto to hit $100,000 in 2022.

Chinese Crypto Investors Liquidating Positions to Fund New Year Plans

Speaking to BeinCrypto, Mow said that the BTC market is yet to recover from high selling pressure mounted by Chinese investors. Chinese Bitcoin investors are grappling with new laws that prohibit crypto-related activities.

Binance is among leading cryptocurrency exchanges folding their Chinese business after the ban. The Blockstream CSO noted that most investors in mainland China are liquidating their BTC before crypto trading platforms completely exit the market.

Apart from the fear of losing funds, Chinese crypto investors may be looking for funds to finance their new year expenditure. China plans to celebrate the new year in February 2022.

Mow anticipates the selling pressure to reduce in 2022, positioning BTC for a price spike. According to Glassnode, an analytics platform, the pressure reached new levels last month and this month. Glassnode pointed out that Asian trading hours are largely associated with plummeting crypto prices compared to US hours.

Billionaire Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates founder, has disclosed the source of Bitcoin’s “merit.” While speaking to Market Watch, Dalio said that although he isn’t well-versed in the leading cryptocurrency, he thinks “it has some merit.”

However, the billionaire noted that the crypto should form “a small” part of an investment portfolio.

Earlier this year, Dalio revealed that he has invested in BTC and described the virtual asset as an “interesting” gold competitor.

During the interview, the billionaire observed that the leading crypto has come a long way and has never been hacked. He added that it’s “an amazing accomplishment” for BTC to work and be “adopted the way it has been.”

According to the billionaire, the “younger generation” sees the virtual currency as a worthy competitor to precious metals like gold. Despite not having intrinsic value, Dalio noted it “has imputed value [hence] has some merit.”

Dalio’s observation coincided with a new survey released by CNBC but conducted by Spectrem Group. Titled “Millionaire Survey,” the study unearthed that many young generation millionaires have a considerable stake in cryptocurrency.

75% is in Crypto

It also noted the millennial millionaires are looking to boost their crypto allocations in the coming year.

The CNBC millionaire survey brought together millennials holding assets worth not less than one million US dollars. Out of the participants, over 80 percent disclosed they are cryptocurrency investors.

Surprisingly, more than half of those surveyed revealed that over 50 percent of their portfolio is in virtual currencies.

A third of the respondents have allocated at least 75 percent of their investments into cryptocurrencies. Apart from unearthing millennials’ high crypto appetite, the survey revealed a huge investment gap between the current and last generations.

For example, while millennials are putting more than half of their wealth in virtual currencies, the older generation only puts roughly four percent of their portfolio in crypto. “more than three-quarters of Gen X investors don’t own any crypto,” the survey stated.

According to the CNBC survey, most of the amount allocated to crypto is invested in leading cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH).

Spectrem Group’s president, George Walper, observed that the millennials’ high interest in virtual assets presents wealth managers with a dilemma.

Millennials Can’t Just “Grow Out” of Crypto

According to Walper, wealth managers can’t afford to ignore the asset class since “millennial millionaires are not going to just ‘grow out’ of crypto.”

The executive noted that the availability of cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) enables wealth managers “to offer exposure to Bitcoin and other cryptos without being a direct holder,” hence avoiding a call from regulators

Walper added that 55 percent of millennial crypto investors are those that entered the industry “years ago with small stakes from their income.” This group holds self-made millionaires after virtual currencies’ return on investment (ROI) beat that of traditional assets such as stocks.

While most crypto critics cite volatility as the main reason for not entering the space, Walper observed most millennial crypto investors “seem to be comfortable with” it.

As billionaire Ray Dalio attributes Bitcoin’s merit to a youthful generation, a leading Indian cryptocurrency exchange, WazirX, declared Bitcoin the most-traded virtual asset on the platform in 2021.

In a report titled “2021 the Year of Crypto,” the crypto trading platform documented reaching more than 10 million users after an increase in new signups this year. Its trading volume also rose by more than 1,730 percent compared to 2020 and hit over 43 billion US dollars.

BTC is the Most Traded Crypto in India

According to the report, “82% of WazirX users […] made profits on their crypto investments” as of the end of last month. BTC took the lead as the most traded coin on WaxirX in 2021. It was followed by Shiba Inu (SHIB), the exchange’s native token, WRX, Tether (USDT), Dogecoin (DOGE), among others.

Notably, female users on the platform increased by over 1,000 percent compared to 829 percent for men. WazirX also noted that “crypto’s impact on ordinary people – however tremendous – transcends beyond trading to include career opportunities and a lot more.”

According to a recent survey conducted by the crypto exchange, 51 percent of participants revealed that they would want a career in virtual currencies.

In 2022, WazirX expects institutions to look beyond BTC, financial watchdogs “from India to the US” to provide regulatory clarity, and more corporate investors to enter the crypto industry.

The exchange also foresees more Web 3.0 metaverse participation and increased crypto employment.