Bitcoin

Bitcoin starts December with $100,000 in sight as the sun sets on a month like no other.
<ul>
 <li>Ranging below all-time highs keeps Bitcoin (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-price" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-price">BTC</a>) traders guessing over when the magical six-figure price tag will appear.</li>
 <li>November 2024 sets a record for Bitcoin’s biggest US dollar gains in a single monthly candle.</li>
 <li>Funding rates show a lack of overheated market conditions — a key ingredient in supporting further upside.</li>
 <li>A bumper week of US employment data precedes the Federal Reserve’s crunch interest rate decision.</li>
 <li>Onchain profit trends channel classic parabolic bull market vibes with a rare SOPR “golden cross.”</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="br-bitcoin-works-on-bull-flag-below-100-000"> Bitcoin works on “bull flag” below $100,000</h2>
Bitcoin avoided flash volatility into the weekly close after November validated a key BTC price breakout.
Still circling $95,000 on Dec. 2, per data from <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://subscription.cointelegraph.com/?_gl=1*7499wx*_ga*MTQ0MzQ0NzI4Ny4xNzE2MzY1NTA0*_ga_53R24TEEB1*MTcxNjM2NTUwNC4xLjEuMTcxNjM2Njg2MC4wLjAuMA.." rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">Cointelegraph Markets Pro</a> and <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.tradingview.com/symbols/BTCEUR/?exchange=BINANCE" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">TradingView</a>, BTC/USD continues to coil beneath what many see as a watershed level: $100,000.
<figure>
 <img alt="Biggest US dollar gains ever — 5 Things to know in Bitcoin this week" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-12/01938693-c01a-7bba-8f74-949408c00c39" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
 </figcaption>
</figure>
Considering recent BTC price action, trader and analyst Rekt Capital <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/rektcapital/status/1863368808477417599" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">revealed</a> a successful support retest.
“Bitcoin has rebounded +7% to the upside after successfully retesting ~$91,000 (red) as support,” they wrote about the daily chart in a recent post on X.
<blockquote>
 “In the short-term, it will be worth watching how the price action continues to develop within this potential Bull Flagging structure.”
</blockquote>
<figure>
 <img alt="Biggest US dollar gains ever — 5 Things to know in Bitcoin this week" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-12/0193868b-b99c-7c46-9730-80df409bbf23" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 BTC/USD 1-day chart. Source: Rekt Capital/X
 </figcaption>
</figure>
Rekt Capital <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/rektcapital/status/1863368211510517774" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">added</a> that a daily close above $97,450 “could kickstart additional trend continuation to get closer to challenging $100,000 once again.”
On the downside, Keith Alan, co-founder of trading resource Material Indicators, <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/KAProductions/status/1862948023334064149" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">noted</a> support now at $95,000 and $90,000.
<figure>
 <img alt="Biggest US dollar gains ever — 5 Things to know in Bitcoin this week" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-12/0193868c-7080-7401-99a8-f6eaf39c8a9f" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 BTC/USDT liquidity data. Source: Keith Alan/X
 </figcaption>
</figure>
“Short-term retest of support is possible,” trader Kevin Svenson <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/KevinSvenson_/status/1863438630561124444" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">reasoned</a> in part of his X post examining 4-hour timeframes.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
 “Overall my bias is bullish despite short term.”
</blockquote>
<figure>
 <img alt="Biggest US dollar gains ever — 5 Things to know in Bitcoin this week" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-12/0193868c-df33-7715-a070-144deeee8dc4" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: Kevin Svenson/X
 </figcaption>
</figure>
An accompanying chart targeted $93,500 as the potential next support retest zone.
<h2 id="br-monthly-btc-price-performance-a-new-ballgame"> Monthly BTC price performance: “A new ballgame”</h2>
Bitcoin may not be at $100,000 yet, but BTC price action <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-26k-record-monthly-btc-price-gain" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">quietly made history</a> over the weekend.
Capping the November monthly candle at $96,400, BTC/USD sealed its biggest-ever one-month US dollar gains.
“It’s a new ballgame,” one bullish reaction from Cory Klippsten, CEO of investment platform Swan Bitcoin, <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/coryklippsten/status/1863010482921083043" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">read</a>.
<figure>
 <img alt="Biggest US dollar gains ever — 5 Things to know in Bitcoin this week" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-12/01938694-45e0-7106-9858-2af00a78edcf" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 BTC/USD 1-month chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
 </figcaption>
</figure>
The candle stands out on the monthly chart as something unprecedented, yet in percentage terms, it is nothing out of the ordinary.
Data from monitoring resource <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.coinglass.com/today" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">CoinGlass</a> showed that at 37%, November’s upside does not even compete with Bitcoin’s most successful 11th months of the year.
<figure>
 <img alt="Biggest US dollar gains ever — 5 Things to know in Bitcoin this week" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-12/0193868e-36b7-78b6-a435-5fd9b37c2e14" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 BTC/USD monthly returns (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass
 </figcaption>
</figure>
For Charles Edwards, founder of quantitative Bitcoin and digital asset fund Capriole Investments, it should soon redress the balance.
“Every cycle we get 4-7 months of insane Bitcoin price discovery returns. We have just had our 1st in November!” he <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/caprioleio/status/1863402061926437018" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">said</a> over the weekend.
<blockquote>
 “The next months will have insane long opportunities. The normie mind is not ready.”
</blockquote>
Edwards continued that breaking the $100,000 mark would inject a new wave of parabolic behavior into the price.
“The real FOMO begins above $100K. Once the epic sell wall falls, we enter a supply vacuum with a new retail-driven infinite bid. Do the math,” he <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/caprioleio/status/1863406767964905812" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">wrote</a>.
Previously, Edwards suggested that Bitcoin <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/btc-price-100k-in-sight-open-interest-reset-bitcoin-bulls" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">should copy gold</a> after its own breakout through key resistance this year.
<h2 id="funding-rates-stay-steady">Funding rates stay steady</h2>
Market stability may well allow a shot at acclimatizing to six-figure Bitcoin.
As noted by trader Jelle this week, funding rates across exchanges remain at manageable levels despite price trading near all-time highs.
“Lots of talk about price needing a bigger pullback &amp; the market being unhealthy. Meanwhile, price chilling at $95,000 with near-baseline funding,” he <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/CryptoJelleNL/status/1863492077369049503" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">told</a> X followers.
<figure>
 <img alt="Biggest US dollar gains ever — 5 Things to know in Bitcoin this week" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-12/01938690-1eb8-70c4-94ee-913564605c5d" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Crypto funding rates heatmap (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass
 </figcaption>
</figure>
Funding has exhibited that <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-analyst-scary-btc-price-upside-funding-73-k" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">relaxed trend for weeks</a>, even as BTC/USD sets repeated records.
“Funding rates on bitcoin are still really low, considering the number of people that have been calling ‘top signals’ recently…” analytics account Bitcoindata21 <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/bitcoindata21/status/1861848046851793305" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">echoed</a> on X last week.
<figure>
 <img alt="Biggest US dollar gains ever — 5 Things to know in Bitcoin this week" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-12/0193868f-0bcb-736e-bc30-551007e854fb" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Bitcoin futures funding rates. Source: Bitcoindata21/X
 </figcaption>
</figure>
Bitcoindata21 compared the current Bitcoin bull market to 2021, when funding rates were multiple times higher. Even March 2024, when BTC/USD set old all-time highs of $73,800, saw considerably higher funding.
<h2 id="us-jobs-data-in-the-spotlight">US jobs data in the spotlight</h2>
The labor market dominates the week’s US macroeconomic data releases as the countdown to the Fed’s next interest rate decision begins.
Job openings on Dec. 3 will be followed by jobless claims two days later, the week then ending with unemployment reports.
“It’s a huge week for the labor market,” trading resource The Kobeissi Letter <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1863226420253638689" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">said</a> about the macro diary.
Kobeissi noted that the prints constitute “the last week of labor market data before the December 18th Fed meeting.”
On Dec. 18, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will decide whether to change benchmark interest rates. As <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-price-100k-by-thanksgiving-bulls-hold-key-level" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">Cointelegraph continues to report</a>, overall bets remain skewed to a fresh 0.25% decrease, but markets are less certain than in previous months.
Data from CME Group’s <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch-tool.html" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">FedWatch Tool</a> currently puts the odds of a 0.25% cut at 67%.
<figure>
 <img alt="Biggest US dollar gains ever — 5 Things to know in Bitcoin this week" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-12/01938690-d88d-7f54-b6e8-e77257d65e80" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Fed target rate probabilities. Source: CME Group
 </figcaption>
</figure>
“If a Bitcoin breakout doesn’t happen before the Dec 18th FOMC Meeting, a 25bps rate cut would not only be an early Christmas gift, it will likely be the catalyst that sends $BTC past $100k,” Material Indicators’ Alan <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/KAProductions/status/1863279003789832622" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">said</a>.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
 “On the other hand, no cut could be the catalyst that triggers a correction and a BTC Flash Sale.”
</blockquote>
<h2 id="bitcoin-metric-golden-cross-teases-sharp-rise">Bitcoin metric golden cross teases “sharp rise”</h2>
Bitcoin analysis is unearthing new signals supporting upside continuation.
Related: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-fund-6-figure-btc-price-250k-in-2025" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">Fund strategist echos 6-figure BTC price targets, sees $250K+ in 2025</a>
This week, it was the Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR) on the radar, as it printed only its second “gold cross” of the current bull market.
Highlighting the event, Crypto Dan, a contributor to onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant, said its implications were unequivocal.
“After the golden cross appears, the market usually starts a strong rise within 2 months at the latest,” he wrote in one of CryptoQuant’s <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cryptoquant.com/insights/quicktake/674d0ec170ff4a54cd9e2176-Strong-rise-in-Bitcoin-is-expected-within-1-2-months" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">Quicktake blog posts</a> on Dec. 2.
<blockquote>
 “The upcoming rise is likely to be a 'sharp rise in the final phase of the upward cycle.'”
</blockquote>
<figure>
 <img alt="Biggest US dollar gains ever — 5 Things to know in Bitcoin this week" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-12/01938692-1390-737b-9f75-69f7f9f7ccb7" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Bitcoin SOPR data (screenshot). Source: CryptoQuant
 </figcaption>
</figure>
SOPR measures whether coins used in onchain transactions move at a higher or lower price than their last transaction, thus expressing onchain profitability. A golden cross occurs when the metric’s 30-day moving average crosses above its 365-day equivalent.
“As the market moves towards the later stages of the cycle, the magnitude of the rise tends to be larger, and the periods of decline/adjustment are shorter,” the post said.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
 “If a steep rise occurs as implied by this indicator within the end of 2024 to the first quarter of 2025, it can be expected that new inflows and additional funds will enter the market, bringing it to its peak.”
</blockquote>
Earlier, <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-2-b-daily-profit-taking-mostly-new-hodlers-research" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">Cointelegraph reported</a> on increased selling pressure from Bitcoin’s more seasoned hodler cohorts.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Biggest US dollar gains ever — 5 Things to know in Bitcoin this week

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