Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas reduced the chances of the SEC rejecting a spot Bitcoin ETF to just 5%, while fellow Bloomberg reporter James Seyffart pointed out that only a black swan intervention by Gary Gensler or the Biden administration could lead to a rejection. .
Interestingly, with traditional markets closed over the weekend, cryptocurrencies continued to trade as usual, with Bitcoin trading flat and the rest of the market experiencing significant selling. Bitcoin traded between $43,500 and $44,400, a change of just 2%. As of press time, the largest digital asset by market capitalization is in the middle of this range, at $44,000 per share. CryptoSlate data.
However, altcoins such as BNB, Solana, Cardano, Avalanche, Dogecoin, Polkadot, Polygon, Shiba Inu, and ICP are all down at least 3% and as much as 9.7% as of press time.
The most resilient altcoins appear to be Ethereum,
Since Saturday, January 6, Bitcoin dominance has risen by 1.5%, reaching a high of 54%, before rebounding slightly this morning. This indicates that the leading digital asset is consolidating its position in the market ahead of a potential landmark approval this week.
Solana, one of the biggest decliners of the weekend, fell as much as 13% against Bitcoin over the weekend and is still down about 9%. Solana peaked at $126 on December 26, 2023, but has fallen 28% over the next 13 days, trading at $90 as of press time.
Bitcoin regained its dominance of the cryptocurrency market from its low point of 38% in mid-2023, recovering to 54% thanks to the hype of spot Bitcoin ETFs. This 39% surge took its dominance to its highest level since April 2021, erasing all the ground the rest of the altcoin market had built on the asset during the last bull market.
Since the launch of Ethereum in 2015, Bitcoin dominance peaked at 75% in early 2021 before falling sharply throughout the bull market, eventually trading within a range of 39% to 48% for about 760 days. However, following the last two Bitcoin halvings, BTC dominance continued to decline, falling 64% and 38% respectively, hitting bottom in about 510 days.
Most interestingly, as highlighted in the indicator at the bottom of the chart above, Bitcoin dominance has maintained a near-perfect correlation with Bitcoin price since early 2023, the longest correlation period since Ethereum entered the market.
This week will be one of the biggest in Bitcoin history as all eyes will be on the Bitcoin ETF approval process. Either way, the decision is sure to impact the entire market, with expected volatility across the board.