What happened to the crypto market over the New Year's holidays?

On the first Saturday of 2021, January 2, while many people were recovering from the roaring New Year's holidays, bitcoin hasn't been sleeping and for the first time ever exceeded the 30 000 dollars mark.

Its one-day 10% jump was one of several weekend and holiday price surges that helped the cryptocurrency increase by two-thirds during the period from early December 2020 to early January 2021.

This represents a major shift from the previous 11 months when weekend trading volumes were by 13% lower than during traditional trading hours.

And within a few days, Bitcoin increased to 40 000 dollars per coin, as many companies and experts noted on Twitter.

Some analysts say that it looks like Ethereum will hit the market in 2021. As its technological advantages pick up speed, Ethereum investors could get 1500 dollars in the near future and 2500 dollars by the end of 2021. It is going to be a wild ride.

It should be noted that such assumptions are not taken out of thin air. Since Ethereum has several advantages — its blockchain technology is considered one of the most advanced among cryptocurrencies — ETH has more room for growth, and the volatility of this cryptocurrency is still quite high.

With a market capitalization of 132.5 billion dollars, this cryptocurrency still accounts for only a fifth of the size of bitcoin. And as the adoption of Ethereum spreads to PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) and other payment systems, this cryptocurrency could easily catch up with Bitcoin.

However, the important thing here is to keep in mind that without an underlying solid asset, Ethereum's value has no real basis.

"The 10 000 dollars invested in January 2018 would have turned into 830 dollars in a year. But the same 10 000 invested in January 2020 would have skyrocketed to 85 000 dollars," said Tom Young, CFA, a certified investment advisor.

Moreover, Ethereum, with its superior architecture, may one day become a mainstream payment processing product. Its ability to complete transactions in seconds (versus minutes in Bitcoin) makes it a viable alternative to Visa and other online payment systems.

Proponents of digital currencies are enthusiastic about the potential for 2021 after a monstrous year during which high bitcoin prices grabbed all the attention.

The 2020 bear market, however short, was the first time Bitcoin and other digital currencies faced a truly global crisis that threatened many types of investment.

"We needed to see Bitcoin weather the global macroeconomic crisis," said Tyrone Ross, CEO at Onramp Invest, a digital platform that allows financial advisors to provide clients with access to cryptocurrencies.

"If you look at when it was invented, before March, it has never experienced a recession."

"It correlated with the market and fell with everything else. There was a flight to dollars. (But) if you look at how it has behaved since then, you will see that there is something here. The actual activity on the blockchain has been impressive. "

Will 2021 be the year of cryptocurrency growth?

• DeFi, dominated by Ethereum, will attract more users and use cases.
• According to the latest Finder.com survey, there is a lot of disagreement as to whether we will see a market crash in 2021. Namely, 58% of respondents believe that BTC will continue to grow no earlier than the second half of 2021, while 10% believe that investors will make a profit until 2024.
• BTC will continue to threaten gold. Some analysts believe that the days of the precious metal as a store of value are numbered due to millennials preferring cryptocurrency as a safe haven asset.
• Zeros will be added to Bitcoin. Bloomberg Intelligence's Mike McGlone estimates that Bitcoin will rise to 50 000 dollars in the first half of 2021.

Will 2021 be the year of cryptocurrency fall?

• For cryptocurrency, 2021 may be the year of a pullback. 52% of those polled on Finder.com agree that more than half of the value of BTC could collapse in a short period of time.
• More DeFi hacks and security breaches may occur in 2021, which will also affect the value of cryptocurrencies.
• Some skeptics believe that Bitcoin could be zeroed out in 2021.

It is difficult to say whether this will be a bull or a bear year for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. However, what we are sure of is that 2021 will be a year of increased attention to cryptocurrencies.

This year we can expect a lot more attention from regulators in many countries. For example, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as well as the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which has begun to target unauthorized companies that pretend to be licensed.