Weekend Market Action Sees Bitcoin Touch $24K, $1 Billion in Short Positions Liquidated

Bitcoin and the crypto economy continue to see strong gains, as the price of the leading crypto-asset touched an all-time high on Saturday, December 19, 2020. That morning around 11:45 a.m. EST, bitcoin touched a price high at $24,217, but got pushed below the $24k handle shortly after.

The entire cryptocurrency economy is up over 10% during the last seven days, as a number of crypto assets have seen some decent price gains. Bitcoin (BTC) jumped above the $24k mark touching a high of $24,217 on Saturday afternoon.

At the time of publication, the leading crypto asset, in terms of market cap, is trading for $23,423 per unit. BTC has gained 21% during the last week, 25.1% in the last 30 days, and 124% for the 90-day span. The market dominance in comparison to the rest of the crypto economy today is 65%.

Ethereum (ETH) is also doing well this weekend, and has gained over 9% this week and 26% during the course of the last 30 days. At $646 per ether, the crypto asset is also up over 90% for the last 90 days. The third-largest crypto-asset market belongs to XRP as each coin is swapping for $0.57 per token. XRP has gained 10.9% during the last week and 146% over the last three months of trading.

Following XRP in the fifth position is litecoin (LTC), which is trading for $113 per coin. LTC has seen quite the spike gaining 40% this week and 168% over the 90 days. The sixth-largest crypto asset valuation is held by bitcoin cash (BCH), which captures a market cap of around $6.74 billion. Against the USD, BCH has spiked 25% this week and has gained 62% during the last three months. At press time, bitcoin cash is swapping for $350 per unit and $4.8 billion in global trade volume.

While digital asset fans have been digging the price rises a great number of traders playing bearish positions have been liquidated this week. According to data from Coinalyze, there were huge trade volumes on Friday and “$80 billion on future markets, $10 billion on spot markets.”

“$800 million got liquidated: both longs and shorts,” Coinalyze added. “Over the previous two days, $1 billion shorts got liquidated.”

Meanwhile, “Finder’s 2021 Bitcoin Predictions Report” surveyed 47 experts and 58% of panelists expect the bull run to last until at least the second half of 2021. Interestingly the panelists surveyed discussed their predictions at the beginning of December before bitcoin (BTC) touched $20k. However, a majority of those surveyed also said that BTC will drop sharply after it reaches peak valuation.

Gavin Smith, Panxora Crypto Hedge Fund managing partner, participated in Finder’s survey and he believes that bitcoin (BTC) will end the year above the $20k handle.

“Bitcoin is now being used as a hedge against fiat money printing by early adopters in both retail and institutional sectors,” Smith said. “This trend is expected to continue. We don’t believe this will be an uninterrupted move higher, we expect the market will exhibit high volatility to both the upside and downside but with a clear bias to higher levels.”