JULISHA MEDIA CRYPTO MARKETS NEWS ROUND-UP.
Bitcoin is being outshined by its scrappier rivals. Today, its price climbed 2.9%, reaching a high of $97,526. While respectable, it couldn’t hold a candle to the fireworks set off by altcoins.
XRP, Ethereum, and Dogecoin surged over 4%, while Solana rocketed 8.2%, leaving Bitcoin looking like the guy still tying his shoes at the starting line.
Investors, eager to start the year on a high note, are throwing their weight behind altcoins. Historically, crypto tends to flex its muscles in the first quarter, and this year seems to be no different.
Wall Street’s crypto darlings are also catching the wave. Coinbase shares rose 5.6%, MicroStrategy jumped 7.3%, and MARA Holding spiked over 8% on the first trading day of 2025. Even so, crypto prices haven’t yet recovered their December highs, which makes them look like a bargain to opportunistic buyers.
Analysts are calling this altcoin rally a bet on the bull market’s longevity. The politics of this surge can’t be ignored. With Donald Trump set to take office soon, many investors are banking on a crypto-friendly environment.
Altcoins that previously caught the SEC’s attention, especially XRP, are suddenly swimming in the capital. Trump’s pro-crypto nominees to key positions are giving the market a confidence boost.
Bitcoin had an outstanding 2024. After recently crossing $108,000, a price correction kicked in, making folks worry about whether this bull cycle is gonna stumble into another prolonged cooldown, like the six-month slump that happened last March.
Data suggests otherwise, but traders aren’t taking their eyes off the ball. Bitcoin’s Adjusted SOPR (Spent Output Profit Ratio), smoothed out over seven days, shows a downward trend. It’s above 1, but if it drops below, historical patterns suggest Bitcoin could rebound as selling at a loss triggers reversals. Bull market habits die hard.
Another key stat is the Miner Position Index (MPI). Miners, who typically unload Bitcoin around halving events or market peaks, are holding steady for now. MPI, also averaged over seven days, shows no signs of miners dumping coins en masse. Instead, they’re selling just enough to cover operational costs, keeping most of their Bitcoin in reserve.
Transaction activity also shows the cooling phase. Network fees, smoothed over a seven-day average, are dipping, signaling less on-chain action. This just means the market is catching its breath after running hot. Funding rates, too, have turned negative, which could set the stage for another bounce if sentiment sours some more.
In Related News, Punters on Polymarket are giving the Solana spot ETF an 84% probability of getting SEC approval in 2025, following the approval of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs earlier. The less than 48-hour poll began at 45% but has now grown to over 80%.
Despite crypto players’ confidence in the SEC’s approval in 2025, traders are not sure when it will happen. Most traders are uncertain if the approval will come before the end of Q1. A similar poll running on Polymarket from November 2024 shows 57% odd for Solana approval by July 31, a drop from 70%, as was the case earlier in the week.
The push for Solana ETF did not begin recently as five asset managers, including Grayscale, VanEck, 21Shares, Bitwise, and Canary Capital, had earlier filed applications with the SEC and are awaiting decisions.
However, the outcome of these applications is pegged on the SEC’s position on SOL. The legality of SOL is unresolved as the regulator is scrutinizing it. Together with other crypto assets, SOL is security in the SEC’s lawsuit against Binance and Coinbase.
Meanwhile, Solana is one of the chains closely watched for top airdrops in all of 2025. As early as January, several events are already close to token distribution or trading.
Following the Magic Eden and PENGU airdrops, Solana is preparing for more high-profile projects. Solana is prepared for several Season 2 airdrops as well, including Sanctum, DeBridge, Drift, Grass, as well as Kamino Season 3.
The new year hype helped Solana return to $208.48, after a recent dip to the $185 level. Solana ended the year with peak activity and fees generated, showing its ecosystem is ready for new startups and tokens.
Solana airdrops often offer easier tasks, and may be the preferred mode of earnings, after a year of complicated and expensive Ethereum-based airdrops.
In the past 12 months, Solana also posted peak activity in multiple sectors, potentially making more wallet users eligible for rewards as they interacted with DEXs and other protocols.
In the first week of January, the Sonic SVM will release its SONIC tokens, already prepared to launch trading from January 7. Sonic is a Solana Virtual Machine project, targeting the builders of games and apps.
In related news, Crypto funding for the whole of 2024 reached $9.33B, with minimal growth compared to 2023.
However, the deal profile and size shifted, as VC funds mixed early-stage seed rounds with advanced, undisclosed, and private funding.
While Tier 1 funds secured large-scale funding, Animoca Brands was the leader in the number of completed deals. After an active year, Animoca Brands completed 106 rounds as a participant, becoming the lead VC in 20 rounds.
In the past year, a total of 1,535 projects were disclosed, a 26.1% increase from the previous year.
The final results for the year may change slightly, as not all rounds are disclosed in the same month. The crypto funding landscape tracked the overall outflow of funding. VC backers were also more selective about their deals, both in crypto and general investments.
Based on the methodology of RootData, the final tally for the year is relatively lower, though it includes some of the large merger deals. Other methodologies measured up to $13.6B in funding, calculated through the methodology of Galaxy Research.
Funding may continue to grow in the coming months, expecting a total of $18B for the year. The VC funding levels are still comparatively lower, not reaching the levels of 2022, when even quarterly funding exceeded $10B at the peak of the market.
Still on Crypto, After pricing below the $40 range for most of the year, Avalanche (AVAX) price resurged in November, climbing out of its yearly resistance to hit a peak of $55.70.
However Avalanche has since declined considerably, falling below its monthly resistance of $44 as it now holds in a weekly price range of $35.00 and $41.38.
However, Avalanche seems to be retesting lower levels while preparing to rally again and potentially near its ATH. One major factor that will potentially ignite a later rally in Avalanche price is the upcoming AVAX 9000 launch.
According to a JULISHA MEDIA Expert, Avalanche token targets the $80 to $88 range as anticipation for this new update surges.
Tron (TRX) coin has also gained massive attention in the last few weeks of 2024, having risen by over 24% in the past month. However, most importantly, its network volume has been surging dramatically showing increased accumulation as well as activity on the network as it just jumped by over 14%.
At moment Tron coin holds in a weekly range of $0.2505 and $0.2635, but optimistic speculations are brewing for the token as it is only consolidating from an ATH of $0.4313 on December 4. Tron’s year-to-date gain also shows a 139% price progression.
However, our expert predictions shows that this is just the beginning for TRX coin. The crypto expert indicated that Tron token might be up for another 444% rise to hit $1.11 and beyond from where it is, potentially ranking it among top cryptos to buy in 2025.
Meanwhile, As a top DeFi network strongly affiliated with Telegram, Toncoin (TON) stands as one of the most anticipated altcoin for significant gains in 2025.
Although Toncoin price sits around 33% below its ATH of $8.25 seven months ago, the token nearly smashed this milestone when it rose to $6.89 on December 5th.
Toncoin price has currently fallen to a weekly range of $5.48- $6.07, but it seems to be consolidating in lower levels, showing potential of a later surge when the bull market continues.