Bitcoin (BTC) continues to consolidate between $35,000-$36,000, however, the altcoin market remains hot with some interesting altcoin price news in the space.

On the other hand, world leaders have also joined institutions in praising Bitcoin (BTC) and the long-term potential it holds. However, before we move to some of the interesting altcoin news and other developments, let’s take a look into what all is happening in Bitcoin at the moment.

Latest Updates Around Bitcoin (BTC) Price and Whale Action

Over the weekend, Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein announced that the momentum for Grayscale products is picking up slowly in 2021. Last Friday, Grayscale raised more than $700 million into its family of products marking the company’s biggest single-day fundraise in history.

Grayscale released its Q4 2020 report wherein the company experienced unprecedented investor demand with the net quarterly inflows at a staggering $3.3 billion.

The company reported: “Institutions have historically accounted for a majority of Grayscale inflows. This was especially true in 4Q20 as institutions accounted for 93% of capital inflows, or $3.0 billion. Indeed, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust accounted for 87% of all inflows to our product family, the highest proportion since 2Q17, further evidence of institutions looking to Bitcoin as a reserve asset”.

Last week, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) purchased 10,000 Bitcoins worth over $300 million. This purchase comes just at a time when the company raised $700 million in funds. Despite the recent purchase, Bitcoin continues to trade sideways.

JPMorgan analysts say that if Bitcoin (BTC) has to stay above $40,000 to sustain further price rally. For this, the analysts noted that the daily net inflows in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) should be above $100 million.

“The flow into the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust would likely need to sustain its $100 million per day pace over the coming days and weeks for such a breakout to occur”.

Last week, Bitcoin (BTC) tested support at $30,000 levels twice before resuming back. An analytics firm explains that just below $30,000 levels, whale buying activity remains strong which provides another crucial support for the BTC price.

“This is how you trade whale bubbles for anyone wondering. Also, large inflows to whale wallets were happening at $29,314. They will be protecting their btc… This should be strong support for bitcoin in the short term, and hopefully long term.”

Since the buying activity is high here, large investors will continue defending it.

The Top Altcoin Price News Currently In the Market

In the altcoin space, altcoin price changes lead with all eyes are currently on Ethereum (ETH) which is trading around $1250 and eyeing for a crucial break-out above $1300 and further above its all-time high of $1400. 

The retail interest in Ethereum has skyrocketed recently! The 5-year Google searches for Ethereum have reached an all-time high at the moment.

Also, data from the on-chain market platform Glassnode suggests that the total number of non-zero ETH addresses or those holding at least 0.01 ETH has surged in recent times.

On the other hand, the Ethereum Active supply has also hit a new 19-month low suggesting a supply crunch.

Polkadot’s DOT crypto has taken a moment of cool down after a massive rally over the weekend. DOT still continues as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap trading at $16.60 with a market cap of $14.6 billion.

On the other hand, Chainlink (LINK) continues to hold above $22 levels with a market cap of $8.7 billion.

Top Cryptocurrency Market News

1.  U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has confirmed the appointment of Gary Gelsner as the new chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Gelsner is a former Goldman Sachs executive and has also served as the CFTC chairperson between 2009 and 2014.
   
   Crypto lawyer Jake Chervinsky states Gelsner has strongly supported Bitcoin for years. His appointment as the SEC chair will increase the chances of Bitcoin ETF. However, the new SEC chairman believes that Ripple’s XRP is a ‘security’ and thus it will continue SEC’s crusade against the blockchain startup.
2. After suffering a massive hack last month, Russian crypto exchange Livecoin has decided to shut down its operations. It has thus asked its customers to start withdrawing all its funds.
   
   The announcement states: “There is no way to continue operative business in these conditions, so we take a hard decision to close the business and pay the remaining funds to clients”.
3. British investment giant Ruffer LLC acknowledged the rising institutional interest in Bitcoin (BTC). The giant announced a $700 million investment into Bitcoin on December 15, 2020, and considers itself among early adopters.
   
   “We think we are relatively early to this, at the foothills of a long trend of institutional adoption and financialization of bitcoin,” wrote the firm in its Q4 2020 review.
   
   Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has praised BTC stating that it’s “here to stay”. Similarly, former Canadian PM Stephen Harper said that Bitcoin can become the reserve currency of the world.