TL;DR

• Shiba Inu partnered with Chainlink to enable cross-chain functionality and enhance Shibarium’s ecosystem.
• Despite that, SHIB and LINK prices dropped significantly amid a broader crypto market pullback.

The Collaboration

The popular meme coin project Shiba Inu announced a partnership with the blockchain oracle network Chainlink. As a result, the assets SHIB, BONE, and LEASH adopted the Cross-Chain Token (CCT) standard to become available across 12 blockchains. 

This mechanism, employing Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), allows token transfers from Ethereum to other chains, while the burn-and-mint program facilitates cross-chain transfers across all other networks.

Additionally, Shibarium (Shiba Inu’s layer-2 scaling solution) integrated the Chainlink standard for blockchain interoperability as its “canonical cross-chain infrastructure.”

“Chainlink CCIP enables Shibarium developers to build feature-rich, reliable cross-chain applications that grow the Shibarium network,” the disclosure reads.

Last but not least, Shiba Inu adopted the Chainlink standard for “low latency market data.” The team behind the meme coin maintained that Chainlink Data Streaks supplies “premium high-frequency data” and delivers “unmatched functionality.”

One of Shiba Inu’s leading developers, who uses the X moniker Kaal, claimed the SHIB ecosystem “transcends every boundary” after the collaboration.

Chainlink’s Chief Business Officer – Johann Eid – also chipped in. He assumed that the integration of the CCIP standard will enhance Shibarium’s capabilities and “drive wide adoption of its ecosystem.”

“We look forward to seeing how the Chainlink standard for cross-chain interoperability and Chainlink Data Streams unlocks innovation, expands the Shibarium Network, and supports the development of efficient and secure DeFi markets,” he concluded.

SHIB and LINK Price Reactions

Despite the announced collaboration, both assets remain deep in the red on a daily scale. Shiba Inu (SHIB) is down almost 20%, currently trading at around $0.00001964, while Chainlink (LINK) has dipped by 16% to less than $21.

Their poor performance coincides with the severe correction in the entire cryptocurrency market, which started shortly after the latest FOMC meeting. As CryptoPotato reported, the Federal Reserve reduced the benchmark by 0.25%, but Chairman Jerome Powell hinted that the policy might be halted next year due to rising inflation concerns. He also said the central bank is not permitted to purchase Bitcoin (BTC) despite Donald Trump’s promises.

In the aftermath, the primary cryptocurrency briefly collapsed to almost $92,000. Leading altcoins, including Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Solana (SOL), Dogecoin (DOGE), and many more, suffered, too, charting double-digit price losses. 

Bitcoin (BTC) is currently worth around $94,000 after trading above $108,000 earlier this week. While traders continue to take profits, analysts believe the cryptocurrency still has room for growth.

According to an X thread by Rafael Schultze-Kraft, the co-founder of the on-chain market intelligence platform Glassnode, over 20 charts and metrics suggest BTC has yet to form its top for this cycle.

More Room for Growth

The Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV) metric, which measures unrealized profitability, is currently hovering around 3. Historically, this indicator has signaled overheating above 7; hence, there is still room for BTC to grow. Also, the top MVRV Pricing Band, which is obtained from calculating the number of days the MVRV has traded at extreme levels, is currently at the 3.2 level.

Schultze-Kraft mentioned that analyzing long-term holder (LTH) profitability metrics like the Relative Unrealized Profit and LTH Net Unrealized Profit/Loss can offer insights into the risks of profit-taking. These metrics just entered the euphoria zone, hitting the 0.75 level. In 2021, BTC rallied approximately 3x after the indicators entered this zone and topped when they hit 0.9+.

Another metric to look at is the Yearly Realized Profit/Loss Ratio, which monitors coin spending among investors. The Glassnode founder disclosed that this indicator peaked above 700% in previous cycles, however, it is currently around 580%.

One more indicator to watch is the Market Cap to Thermocap Ratio, which is not close to previous extremes. Historical data has shown that BTC tops occur when this metric reaches a multiple of 32-64; however, the metric currently hovers at the bottom of this range. The top band of this metric will put Bitcoin’s market cap above $4 trillion.

BTC Top at $230K?

Furthermore, the Investor Tool metric suggests BTC could top at $230,000. The Bitcoin Price Temperature indicator counters this suggestion but places a BTC top at $151,000.

Moreover, the Value Days Destroyed Multiple, which compares near-term coin days destruction to the yearly average to determine increasing spending of older coins that eventually overpower demand, sits at 2.2. With previous extreme values above 2.9, the indicator suggests room for growth.

Schultze-Kraft listed other metrics and charts, including the Mayer Multiple, the Cycle Extremes Oscillator Chart, the Pi Cycle Top Indicator, the LTH Inflation rate, the Sell-side Risk Ratio, and the Short-term Holder Spent Output Profit Ratio.

While these indicators have placed bitcoin’s cycle top at different levels, they all suggest that the digital asset is only halfway through this bull run.

It’s not always roses and rainbows in the cryptocurrency market and even though it may have felt like it for the past few weeks, the last seven days made sure to remind us of it. The total capitalization dropped by more than $300 billion as Bitcoin’s price went on a complete rollercoaster, similar to that of the majority of altcoins.

The first few days of the week started as we are more or less used to by know – up only. Bitcoin’s price tapped a new all-time high above $108,000 and the market was anticipating the results of the meeting of the US Federal Result. Quite frankly, everyone was expecting for the institution to once again cut the interest rates, which is generally perceived as a positive move as far as risk-on assets go. Oh, if it were true this time around.

During the meeting, the Chairman Jerome Powell said that they might consider a slowdown of rate cuts, given that the inflation in the country is rising. This propelled a market-wide sell-off across the crypto industry but also across tradfi as the majority of indices also dropped considerably.

More interestingly, Powell addressed the possibility of Bitcoin becoming a reserve asset for the country, saying that the Federal Reserve is legally prohibited from holding it. This might put a dent into Trump’s plans and it appears that investors didn’t like it as the cryptocurrency is now trading below $100K, having plummetted to around $92,000 earlier today.

The sell-off also triggered over $1.3 billion worth of liquidated positions across the cryptocurrency market on Friday alone.

The majority of altcoins are trading in the red, with Ethereum down almost 15%, XRP – 10%, BNB – 8%, Solana -15%, DOGE – 25%, and so forth.

As it’s almost always the case, a lot of people in the community are already speculating whether or not the bull run is over, but during times like these it’s really important to zoom out and keep a steady eye on the bigger picture.

In any case, if one thing is sure, it’s that the next few weeks are likely to be quite interesting, so let’s see how it goes!

Market Data

Market Cap: $3.45T | 24H Vol: $482B | BTC Dominance: 55.3%

BTC: $96,552 (-4.5%) | ETH: $3,370 ( -15% ) | XRP: $2.21 (-10%)

This Week’s Headlines You Can’t Miss

MicroStrategy Announces First Bitcoin Purchase With BTC Prices Above $100K. It wouldn’t be a Monday these days if the Michael Saylor-founded business intelligence giant didn’t announce a massive BTC purchase. In this week’s example, the company allocated $1.5 billion to accumulate 15,350 BTC at an average price of just over $100,000.

XRP Price on the Move as Ripple Announces Stablecoin Launch on Dec 17. Although it continues with its legal tussle against the US securities watchdog, Ripple entered the stablecoin industry this week by finally launching its own product called RLUSD. The token release was on December 17, and it positively impacted XRP’s price at the time.

This Cohort of Ethereum Whales Accumulates Record 57.35% of Supply. Ethereum whales have been on an accumulation spree lately, according to on-chain data. The number of large wallets holding at least 100,000 ETH has jumped to an all-time high of over 57% of the entire supply.

BlackRock’s IBIT Nearly Doubles Gold ETF’s 20-Year AUM Milestone in Less Than 12 Months. The world’s largest Bitcoin ETF continues to shatter records. Its AUM has skyrocketed in the past 11 months to almost $60 billion as of December 19, which dwarfed the performance of the company’s biggest gold-based ETF.

Bitcoin Price Tumbles Toward $100K Despite Fed’s Latest Rate Cut. The entire financial field expected another rate cut at the end of 2024, and that’s what they got. However, the hawkish words by Jerome Powell about potentially stopping the rate reductions in 2025 sent the ever-volatile and risky crypto market down hard. At first, BTC tumbled toward $100,000 but quickly lost that level and dumped all the way south to $92,100, leading to speculations about whether this bull market has ended.

Fed Effect: Biggest Net Outflow Day for Bitcoin ETFs Led to Crash Below $96K. Powell’s aforementioned comments seemingly scared US investors out of their BTC positions, which is particularly true for the spot Bitcoin ETFs. The financial vehicles recorded their worst day in terms of daily net outflows on the day after the FOMC meeting (December 19), with nearly $700 million being withdrawn.