Bitcoin Holds Steady Near $88K While NFT Market Sees Christmas Week Surge

Bitcoin and Major Cryptocurrencies Show Mixed Performance

Bitcoin ended the Christmas trading week nearly unchanged at around $88,000, managing to stabilize after recent volatility ^[1]. The leading cryptocurrency demonstrated resilience during the holiday period, though broader market sentiment remained cautious.

Ethereum, however, faced headwinds during the same period, declining nearly 2% over the seven-day period to trade just below $3,000 ^[1]. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization continues to face technical challenges, with price action compressed within a sideways consolidation range ^[4].

Other major cryptocurrencies including Ripple (XRP) and Solana (SOL) also experienced losses despite continued inflows into spot ETFs ^[1].

Ethereum Faces Technical Resistance

Ethereum's current price action reflects broader indecision among bulls after forming a rounded top structure earlier in the year, having reached a cycle high near $4,927 before losing momentum ^[4]. Following rejection from this high, Ethereum underwent a prolonged correction toward the $2,700 support zone, which aligns with the 0.786 Fibonacci retracement level ^[4].

The cryptocurrency remains under bearish pressure after forming a death cross earlier in the decline, with price still trading below both the 50-day Simple Moving Average at $3,052 and the 200-day Simple Moving Average at $3,585 ^[4]. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) on the daily timeframe currently sits around 44, having moved slightly higher from recent lows, suggesting momentum is stabilizing but remains below the neutral 50 level ^[4].

NFT Market Experiences Holiday Boost

While major cryptocurrencies showed mixed performance, the non-fungible token market experienced a notable surge during Christmas week. Data compiled by cryptoslam.io shows that the number of crypto users trading NFTs increased by 27% over the past week, with more than 300,000 traders buying NFT collections ^[3].

This surge pushed the total trading sales volume to $63 million for the seven-day period ^[3]. The increase in NFT buyers coincided with Christmas celebrations, as NFTs served as unique, modern Christmas gifts, allowing for personalized digital art, collectibles, or nativity-themed items to be shared via blockchain ^[3].

Ethereum-based NFTs led the market this festive week with a trading sales volume of over $20 million, though this represented a 24% decline from the previous week ^[3]. Bitcoin-based NFT collections, including popular Ordinals, BRC-20, and Rune collections, recorded $12 million in trading sales volume, marking a significant 53% surge from the previous week ^[3].

Top Performing NFT Collections

The Courtyard NFT collection, featuring randomly generated digital items on the Polygon blockchain, amassed a trading sales volume of $4.5 million during Christmas week, representing a 23% increase from the previous week ^[3]. DMarket, a collection on Mythos Chain featuring in-game virtual items for games like Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2, recorded $4.1 million in trading volume, down 4.90% from the prior week ^[3].

The $?? BRC-20 NFT collection, created on the Bitcoin blockchain using the BRC-20 protocol, generated $3.4 million in trading sales volume, representing a remarkable 333% increase from the previous week ^[3].

Market Outlook

As traders approach the year-end period, attention is focusing on upcoming economic data and central bank signals from Japan and the United States, which could significantly impact cryptocurrency prices ^[1]. The NFT market is currently in a phase of structural maturity and transition, with expectations of a potential rebound in the coming weeks or months ^[3].