Good news for the crypto sector in early 2023, especially for Bitcoin and Solana.
To be fair, there were already signs of a possible better trend in December 2022, but there seems to have been a momentary reversal since the beginning of the year.
December of Bitcoin and Solana crypto assets
Speaking of December, CryptoCompare Asset Report just released.
The report shows that while digital asset markets continued to fall in December 2022, volatility decreased sharply compared to the previous month.
At the end of the year The price of Bitcoin -64.2%, or the second worst annual performance in its 13-year history, and December trading volume closed down 42.6% from November.
However, November has been a unique month with high volumes and high volatility The collapse of FTX.
Instead, volatility returned to normal in December after November’s record highs, making BTC the least volatile asset during the period. 2022 ended with a 30-day volatility of 27.9%, or just above the annual low of 26.8%.
The decline in volumes was even more significant for Solana, with those in the SOL-USDT trading pair down 80.6% compared to November. BTC-USDT volumes fell by 42.6% and ETH-USDT volumes by 57.0%.
Apart from USDT, it was still Bitcoin that recorded the highest trading volume in December, accounting for 47.0% of the total spot volume on centralized exchanges, the second best performance in 2022.
Analysis of Bitcoin and Solana crypto assets
Low volatility and stronger relative performance have made Bitcoin the asset of choice for traders and investors.
Additionally, December alone saw a 4.43% increase in daily transactions on some key layer 2 protocols, a 758% year-over-year increase.
Bitcoin (BTC)
Started with +5% for 2023 price Bitcointhis was back in mid december.
Indeed, looking at the BTC price chart for the first 11 days of 2023, for example, it appears to be moving higher, albeit still below the levels of December 14th.
It should be noted that after the collapse due to the bankruptcy of FTX, the 2022 low fell below $15,500 on November 9, and after returning to these levels on November 22, the price always remained above $16,000, $17,000 1-14 passed to December
However, it returned to $16,500 on December 17 and then resumed its ascent on January 2, 2023.
Solana (SOL)
Solana‘s ecosystem started the year on a positive note thanks to an increase in average weekly active addresses from 378.2 million to 490.5 million. While this is partly due to BONK taking off, SOL’s price trend tells a different story.
In fact, a downward phase for SOL also started on December 15th, ending at the 2022 low of $8.4 on December 29th.
Since this decline started at $14.7, it has lost 42% in two weeks.
But on December 30, the price returned to the $10 level, and from January 2 began a strong climb to $16, a doubling in less than two weeks.
The current price is still below the November 11 price after the move following the crash due to the FTX bankruptcy.
So 2023 is off to a very good start for Solana, although it has yet to recover much of November’s losses.
The price of Ethereum
The price of ETH is also performing well.
Up 11% from just below $1,200 in late December, the current price is well above even June and July 2022.
Indeed, during the FTX-induced collapse, the price of ETH never fell below the 2022 annual lows made in June, expressing interesting strength.
Even for ETH, the volatility has decreased slightly, although it is still greater than Bitcoin.
However, it was not the best performing cryptocurrency in the top 10.
Analysis of Cardano (ADA).
Among the world’s top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, the best performer is Cardano’s blockchain cryptocurrency ADA.
In fact, as of December 31st, it is +25%, higher than BNB’s +14% and Polygon’s +13%.
Cardano closed 2022 down $0.25, or 81.2% year-to-date. This was the second largest annual decline in history, behind only the 94.3% decline in the bear market of 2018.
After such a big drop, a good rebound was expected in case of revival in cryptocurrency markets.
While it’s still too early to talk about health, the 2023 timeline for the ADA price suggests it’s not just an insignificant post-minimum jump.
At this point, it’s not yet possible to say with certainty that a trend is in place, or even that the bottom of this bear market is behind us, but at least in the short term, the pain seems to be over.
The strong rebounds in Cardano and Solana in particular clearly indicate that the panic that dominated the cryptocurrency markets in both November and December has subsided. However, it remains to be seen if he will return or if he will be given a reprieve.