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Weekly Beluga Insights

It’s been a relatively quiet week for crypto, especially compared to the craziness of the past 2 months, as traders seem to be taking some time off for the holidays. We end the week here at virtually the same prices we started it at, with Bitcoin sitting at about $94,500 at time of writing. Volumes will likely remain muted through the end of the year as traders and funds alike wait for a new tax season, and the fact that the largest Bitcoin options expiry in history happened today with virtually no volatility supports that thesis.

While things might be boring on the charts, we have a lot to look forward to in Q1 as far as “new things” go — both Monad and Berachain, arguably the most anticipated chain launches in the last few years, are both set to go live soon. It seems attention on Monad may have waned some since the peak of hype earlier this year, however the excitement for Bera is apparent with the big sweeps happening on their NFT collections which will receive an allocation from the BERA airdrop. In addition, the recent launch of the Sonic L1 (an upgrade of the Fantom network) represents another fresh ecosystem for traders to play around in — if we can maintain positive price action on the majors, onchain volumes should return in a big way which will asymmetrically benefit these new ecosystems.

Major Movers of the Week

Public Trading Wallet Update

While the alt coins slowly bled this week, our portfolio balance followed suit with a bit of a drop off since our last update a week ago. Our holdings did change a bit though, as I decided to swap 6,000 of our $FTM into $BEETS (currently trading at $0.068), which is the largest Liquid Staking Token (LST) provider on Fantom and now Sonic as well. When new chains get attention we tend to see these types of protocols balloon in Total Value Locked (TVL), which should translate into positive price action for the token.

The biggest pain point for our holdings of course remains Optimism $OP, which has seemingly found it hard to compete with the series of new Layer 2’s that have launched tokens this year. Of course Ethereum itself has been a bit neglected as well which leads there to be less attention on its L2’s, so I think once we see a shift back to mainnet $OP will catch a bid again. For now it’s a waiting game until we see volumes return, and I expect them to return in a big way in Q1 — this bull run is far from over.

Catch Up on What You Missed

• DeFi websites hit with ‘disappointing’ KYC rule in waning days of Biden administration

• Solana meme coin MIRA soars to $80M market cap in 5 hours as community rallies around brave little girl

• Bitcoin’s ‘Kimchi Premium’ jumps amid South Korean political turmoil

• Bitcoin options reach record $14bn in sign major rally is ‘weeks away’

Tweet of the Week

Remember when the German Government capitulated at the bottom of Bitcoin this Summer? Thanks for playing.

Earn for Free with Beluga Starterpacks!

This week we’ve teamed up with Web3 gaming powerhouse Mavia as well as BONK, the largest memecoin on Solana, to give away free tokens for our users! Simply complete a Starterpack with some information on each project to earn, all for free!

You can find all live Starterpacks on the Beluga site here.

Disclaimer

The content on this site is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. While Beluga strives to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of information, there may be discrepancies when comparing our data to that of financial institutions, service providers, or specific product websites. Always consult with a professional before making any financial decisions.

Will McKinnon is the Head of Content for Beluga and has spent every day for many years trading coins. For that reason there are too many to name, however his largest holdings by a significant margin are Ethereum and Bitcoin. NFA DYOR