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  • December saw Bitcoin rise then dip, but it was a largely positive year for crypto
  • We look back on a few key turning points for Bitcoin and crypto in 2024
  • What’s next? Growing stablecoin reserves could hint at a fresh rally in January

 

December was certainly a month to remember in the cryptoverse.

Actually, let’s rephrase – the first half of December was certainly memorable for finally cracking the long-coveted US$100,000 Bitcoin milestone. The latter part of the month was a bit of a damp squib, frankly.

Not that a plus-US$90,000 Bitcoin is anything to whinge about, mind. It’s very easy to become a spoilt brat with a short memory in the volatile world of magic internet money.

 

Bitcoin’s December monthly return

Below, you can see the OG crytpo’s December 2024 percentage return (and indeed all its other monthly returns to date), courtesy of the blockchain data gurus at Coinglass.

BTC rode the rollercoaster in December 2024, surging to its all time high of just over US$108k on December 17 in the wake of the US election result, fed by Trumpian pro-crypto sentiment, before a fairly dramatic dip back down just below US$92k at its lowest mark for the month.

When all was said and done, December, then, saw a 2.85% gain for Bitcoin. Profit taking around and above the psychological level of US$100k? Likely. And inevitable, really.

Source: Coinglass

As for the entire year, 2024 was a pretty good one on the whole for Bitcoin and crypto, with the benchmark cryptocurrency BTC registering a 97% gain.

Not its greatest by any means, but also not too shabby, either, and plenty of crypto watchers are predicting bigger things to come in 2025.

 

2024 – some key takeaways

ETFs approved
In one of the year’s biggest catalysts for the crypto industry and market in the US and therefore globally, Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs were finally approved early in 2024 after years of trying, with none other than asset management titan BlackRock leading the way.

This has marked a major step towards mainstream crypto adoption, bringing with it the perception of legitimacy for the asset class, and helping to onboard deep-pocketed institutional investors in the process.

SBF banged up
Closing the book on crypto’s darkest chapter, Sam Bankman-Fried, disgraced founder of the collapsed FTX exchange, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March, for masterminding one of the biggest, most outrageous frauds in financial history.

With this broadly damaging episode – and its many shady subplots – fading in the industry’s rearview mirror, the healing could begin at last… for crypto-heavy portfolios, as much as anything else.

The Bitcoin halving
More heavily anticipated than a Taylor Swift concert and in reality about as exciting as a Jerome Powell wardrobe malfunction, the famed Bitcoin halving took place in April. The market-movement excitement tends to come about six months or so after an actual Bitcoin halving event, and so it proved once again this year.

The Bitcoin halving, by the way, occurs roughly every four years and reduces the reward for mining new blocks of Bitcoin by 50%. What this does, effectively, is make the benchmark crypto even scarcer.

Trump bump and good riddance Gensler  

After one of the most bizarre, eventful, vitriolic, violent and divisive US election contests in living memory, the US landed a pro-crypto president elect in Donald “I Will Fire Gary Gensler on Day One” Trump.

It turns out SEC Chairman Gensler, famous for his stonewalling, hostile and frustratingly obtuse stance on the crypto industry in America, has beat Trump to the punch, announcing his departure from the financial regulator on the date of Trump’s presidential inauguration – January 20.

Donald Trump’s strong, vocal support for Bitcoin and digital assets in general, along with making pro-crypto appointments to key financial positions, was certainly a massive factor in the market’s surge in early December. The date of the president elect’s inauguration is predicted by some observers, for example investment manager Anthony Pompliano (speaking with Fox Business below), to mark another upturn in the bullish crypto cycle.

 

Around the blocks: Binance boost hints at rally

• As reported by Cointelegraph (see tweet below), a potential Bitcoin rally in January is set to benefit from a record US$31 billion worth of stablecoins on the Binance exchange globally – “awaiting deployment”.

• Per a Binance news article, though, the stablecoin reserves figure may actually be higher than that:

“Bitcoin is gearing up for a potential rally to $120,000 in January 2025, supported by record-high $45 billion stablecoin reserves on Binance, signaling robust buying power awaiting deployment.”

Regardless, the consensus is a large increase in stablecoin reserves on the whole, per Cryptoquant data. And, as Cointelegraph notes:

“Increasing stablecoin inflows to crypto exchanges can signal incoming buying pressure and growing investor appetite, as stablecoins are the main investor on-ramp from fiat to the crypto world.”

• Meanwhile…

 

Nothing in this article should be construed as financial advice. At the time of writing, the author held Bitcoin and a handful of other cryptocurrencies. 

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