Daily Crypto Updates (Dec. 30, 2021): New Year’s Eve At Decentraland (MANA)
Retail Investors Are Distributing Their BTC
After failing to bounce back to the $48k level, BTC has dipped further below $47k, even setting a local low near the $45.9k level in the early hours of Thursday. Although it has since risen back above the $46.5k level, BTC’s potential for any upside movements is still largely impinged by the immediate resistance zone near the $47k level.
In the same vein, ETH also saw an accelerated decline below its $3,700 support level, and is currently consolidating its losses after only just bouncing back from a new low of around $3,580 that was set within the past 24 hours. This market downturn is likely due to the imminent expiration of $6 billion worth of BTC options contracts on Friday, and looks set to only be a short-term fixture.
However, in looking at some on-chain data points, there are some worrying signs for BTC and the crypto market at large. Based on the BTC Holdings chart, it appears that most BTC whales and long-term HODL-ers did not accumulate any more BTC during the latest price dip.
Additionally, it can also be observed that there is now a growing tendency for the smaller-time retail traders to distribute the BTC that they hold. Although retail traders no longer have as much power to sway the market as they previously had (due to the influx of larger institutional players), their tendency to sell at a price much lower than the previous market top is still a worrying signal.
Not all is doom and gloom in the crypto market though, as several mid-cap tokens like ALGO and NEAR have still managed to record impressive gains within the last 24 hours on the back of technological upgrades and the introduction of new liquidity incentive programs.
Times Square in Decentraland (MANA)
New Year’s Eve celebrations are a big thing for Americans, and there is nothing more evocative than the New York Times Square ball drop to usher in a new year. However, as COVID-19 has been on a rampage around the world this year (including in the U.S.), many people may not get to enjoy these new year festivities in person anymore.
Thankfully, we still have the Metaverse. In a move to take these iconic celebrations digital, Crypto giant Digital Currency Group and Jamestown, the owner of One Times Square, announced on Wednesday that they are going to be recreating the New York Times Square countdown site on Decentraland, an open source 3D virtual world platform that is powered by blockchain technology, for the “MetaFest New Year’s Eve Countdown Party 2022”.
Attendees of this virtual party can look forward to participating in immersive games, interactive mingling, and of course — the Times Square ball drop — all without the hassle of having to wait in long queues and/or being exposed to the risks of COVID-19 transmissions.
