This has resulted in the renewal of six-figure price predictions for this market cycle, with some suggesting a top of $300,000 this time around.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $37,900 after reaching an intraday high of $40,000 according to Tradingview.com. The asset had started to fall back during the Asian trading session on Friday and had failed to break its previous high of $42,000 but the sentiment is still very bullish.

Total crypto market capitalization has topped a trillion dollars again as some of the altcoins, such as Polkadot, make monumental 24-hour gains.

When Will Bitcoin Top $100K?

Popular traders and analysts are back in the game of predicting prices and they’re largely in agreement that this market cycle will result in six figure Bitcoin prices.

Josh Rager said that he thinks Bitcoin will see a six-figure price by early 2022;

I knew six-figure Bitcoin was eventually coming but thought it would be next cycle high

After the recent price action, hitting $40k this quickly, I have to say that I think Bitcoin sees a six-figure price by early 2022

And that $BTC will continue to catch fire across the globe

— Josh Rager 📈 (@Josh_Rager) January 15, 2021

He added that at this peak, the name of ‘Bitcoin’ will be mentioned on every TV, phone, and tablet around the world.

“This could certainly be the cycle that leads to Bitcoin becoming a household name along with serious adoption from those who once mocked peer-to-peer digital money,”

Fellow trader ‘TraderKoz’, who has 28k followers on twitter added that at a guess he would say that this cycle takes us to $250k to $350k.

“From there, we have 3 years of accumulation in the $60-90k range before Bitcoin takes over the entire financial system. That bull run will take us to over $1,000,000,”

Michael Saylor, who’s institutional investment firm MicroStrategy has been buying up large swathes of Bitcoin, continues to post bullish tweets about the asset to his 330k followers;

#Bitcoin is a feat of monetary engineering, and more closely described by the math, science, & technique of aerospace engineering than the models of financial or software engineering.

— Michael Saylor (@michael_saylor) January 14, 2021

The Institutional Effect

Aggregated derivative exchange data provider Bybit reported that Bitcoin institutional inflows are showing no signs of slowing down, adding that there may be a new round of buying by Grayscale.

Grayscale itself reported an assets under management (AUM) figure of $27.7 billion in its most recent update. The company has also just released its fourth-quarter report revealing that there was record investor demand in the period, with approximately $3.3 billion in inflows.

4Q REPORT: Last year’s investment into the Grayscale family of products surpassed $5.7 billion, more than four times the $1.2 billion cumulative inflow into our products from 2013-2019. Read more. https://t.co/T4sMVQhcDe pic.twitter.com/yuh5qj0GyT

— Grayscale (@Grayscale) January 15, 2021

The story made such an impact that even Reuters picked it up.

Blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis has tracked simultaneous Bitcoin (BTC) donations to wallets associated with right-wing extremist groups in the U.S., which might have helped fund the recent riot at the U.S. Capitol. The news marks yet another pivot towards pseudonymous money transfer means by alt-right groups in the U.S.

Alt-Right Agitators Received $500K in Bitcoin Prior to US Capitol Riot

Publishing its findings on Thursday (Jan. 14, 2021), Chainalysis revealed that several notable alt-right personalities who were present at the Jan. 6 riot in the U.S. Capitol received substantial Bitcoin donations.

According to Chainalysis, a single donor funneled 18.15 BTC to addresses belonging to entities with right-leaning affiliations on Dec. 8, 2020. At the time, this figure was worth over $500,000.

In its report, Chainalysis also revealed that popular far-right political commentator Nick Fuentes received 13.5 BTC. There are a few photographic pieces of evidence placing Fuentes at the riot with a megaphone in hand though Fuentes has denied entering the building itself.

Apart from him, alt-right podcaster Ethan Ralph and VDARE — an anti-immigration organization — also received BTC sums from the donor. While Chainalysis did not reveal the identity of the person responsible for funneling the Bitcoin, the crypto forensics outfit did mention that there strong evidence that the donor is a French computer programmer.

An examination into the donor’s wallet shows that the person is likely an early Bitcoin adopter. Further investigation into the donor shows a history of donations to extremist causes with an alleged suicide note referencing known alt-right talking points.

Based on these findings, U.S. law enforcement officials are reportedly investigating possible links between the donations and the assault on the Capitol. Prosecutors also say that they are approaching the investigations from a counterterrorism and counterintelligence standpoint.

Financial Censorship Triggering Crypto Adoption

Alt-right groups receiving donations in Bitcoin is only the latest example of political and social groups with dissident ideologies embracing cryptocurrencies. Indeed, Bitcoin’s early history is somewhat intertwined with WikiLeaks especially after the establishment was cut off from mainstream funding sources.

Even countries facing economic sanctions are also adopting cryptocurrencies. Venezuela is a popular example, with the Maduro administration even creating its own oil-backed Petro “coin.”

Nations like Iran are actively supporting Bitcoin mining with tax breaks for BTC miners. As previously reported by CryptoPotato, the output from three power plants has been offered to miners in the country.

This week was very intensive in the cryptocurrency market. It’s perhaps safe to say that it was among the most tumultuous ones we’ve had in the last few months.

Everything started calmly, and during the weekend, the price hit an all-time high value of $42,000. The excitement was short-lived, as immediately after that, bitcoin went in the opposite direction and started to decline. It wasn’t until Monday, however, when things took a turn for the worst.

Bitcoin’s price lost around $12,000 in what seems to be the first major correction in the ongoing bull run. The decline of around 27% came in a few brutal four-hour red candles and led to the liquidations of $2.87 billion worth of both long and short positions, indicating once again how over-leveraged the market is.

From there, the price took uphill and even reached $40,000 again on Thursday. Bears, however, weren’t done as what followed was another handful of red candles that brought the price to its current trading level of about $35,000.

With this said, the entire cryptocurrency market took a hit as the capitalization has dropped below $1 trillion. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s dominance is also suffering, as it’s down to 67.7% during this week from its high of around 70.3%. This shows that despite the blood on the streets, altcoins have managed to take the upper hand and claim a larger portion of the market.

Meanwhile, two other projects made headlines over the past few days, mainly thanks to their incredible price performance. Despite this brutal correction, Polkadot’s DOT token is up 40% over the last seven days, while LINK is up 22%. The latter even charted a new all-time high today.

In any case, the week was particularly exciting, and even though this time it was the bears who had the upper hand, it’s very interesting to see how the next few days will shape up. Is this the beginning of a larger correction, or is it just a step back in preparation for an even bigger rally? We have yet to see.

Market Data

Market Cap: $964B | 24H Vol: 144B | BTC Dominance: 67.7%

BTC: $35,442 (-14.6%) | ETH: $1,141 (-7.5%) | XRP: $0.276 (-12.9%)

Tether (USDT) January 15th Deadline on iFinex Case: Everything You Need to Know. Today is an important date for the entire cryptocurrency industry as it marks a serious deadline on the iFinex v. NYAG case. Here is everything you need to know about it and what to expect.

FinCEN Extends Comment Window on Proposed Crypto Regulations. After receiving thousands of responses and serious criticism from industry participants, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has decided to extend the comment window on the proposed cryptocurrency regulations.

Following Coinbase And Bakkt: Winklevoss’ Gemini Reportedly Considers Going Public. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are reportedly exploring the option of taking their cryptocurrency exchange, Gemini, public. This means that they could follow in the footsteps of other cryptocurrency-related companies with similar intentions – namely, Coinbase and Bakkt.

Greenlight: Anchorage Secures Crypto Banking Charter from the OCC. The United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has granted a cryptocurrency custodial service company a national trust charter. This puts the firm in the position to claim the mantle of a US-based national crypto bank.

4 Possible Reasons for Bitcoin’s $12K Correction After Reaching $42,000 All-Time High. Bitcoin went through its first major correction this week, sliding by more than 27% in just a few four-hour red candles. Here are some of the potential reasons for which this happened.

Crypto Market Cap Reclaims $1 Trillion as Bitcoin Sets Sights on $40K. The cryptocurrency market sees no boring days. Just a couple of days back, it was on its way back up, recovering from a major correction, and even claimed $1 trillion in market cap again. Unfortunately, today things took a turn for the worst again.

Charts

This week we have a chart analysis of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Polkadot, and Cardano – click here for the full price analysis.