Crypto market update: Kraken, World Liberty and BTC, SOL, AAVE

The crypto market has gained 3.3% to hit a total market cap of $3.83 trillion, with Bitcoin (BTC) regaining the psychological $100,000 level.

Several altcoins are also showing bullish signals, with analysts predicting higher moves for Solana (SOL), Aave (AAVE) and Chainlink (LINK).

With markets largely bullish on December 12, here’s the daily update ahead of the US trading session.

Crypto in the news

Bloomberg reported early Thursday that Brian Quintenz, head of policy at a16z Crypto, has emerged the top candidate for chair position at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Quitenz is a former CFTC Commissioner who helped bring the first Bitcoin and Ethereum futures contracts to the US market.

President Donald Trump’s team is looking to have him head the CFTC.

In other news, crypto exchange Kraken’s operator in Australia has been hit with a $5.1 million penalty by local regulators.

The Federal Court of Australia ordered Bit Trade to pay the fine for regulatory noncompliance. Read more here.

Meanwhile, Arbitrum Foundation and game studio and publisher Ubisoft have announced that the web3 shooter game “Captain Laserhawk: The G.A.M.E.” will launch on December 18, 2024.

World Liberty Financial, a Trump family crypto project, has doubled down on crypto with purchases of ETH, LINK and AAVE.

Lookonchain data shows the World Liberty Multisig wallet has used 10 million USDC on the three altcoins.

The purchases are part of the catalysts for the coins’ uptick in the past 24 hours. World Liberty has previously revealed partnerships with Aave and Chainlink.

Binance Labs-backed BounceBit announced a strategic investment from Boyaa Interactive, the Hong Kong listed company that has become “Asia’s MicroStrategy.” BounceBit is eyeing the real-world assets (RWAs), a sector expected to see significant growth.

In crypto listing news, OKX announced it will add GOAT (Goatseus Maximus) on December 12.

Spot trading support for the meme coin comes as tokens related to AI agent Terminal of Truths rallied, with cat girl and Fartcoin exploding 82% and 24% respectively. GOAT traded 16% higher in the past 24 hours.

Crypto price update

Bitcoin (BTC)

Bitcoin has regained the $100k mark and could rise further as analysts point to a key resistance level.

Crypto analyst Captain Faibik says clearing $101k is key for bulls.

BTC traded around $100,670 on Thursday, about 2.7% up in the past 24 hours.

Solana (SOL)

Solana reached a new all-time high of $263 in November before paring gains as XRP flipped it by market cap.

However, Solana’s price is back above $230. Key metrics such as DEX volume jumping to above $900 billion, traders hitting 383 million and swaps reaching 4.56 billion are buoying projections.

Aave (AAVE)

Arthur Cheong, founder and CIO of crypto investment firm DeFiance Capital, predicts Aave could go higher given bullish network metrics.

“Protocol metrics of Aave already exceed ATH by a wide margin but the price is still >50% below ATH.

Stablecoin supply is also significantly higher compared to 2021 which powers DeFi. Higher,” Cheong posted on X.

AAVE hovered around $362, its highest level since September 2021.

Top gainers/losers in 100 coins by market cap

Ethereum (ETH), XRP (XRP), BNB (BNB), Dogecoin (DOGE) and Cardano (ADA) are all in the green over the past 24 hours.

ETH trades above $3,900, XRP above $2.40 and DOGE at $0.41. However, they are not the top 5 gainers in the past 24 hours among top coins in largest 100 by market cap.

At the time of writing to gainers were: Aave (AAVE) + 30%; Sui (SUI) +25%; Chainlink (LINK) + 24.7%; Beam (BEAM) + 21.7% and Uniswap (UNI) + 19%.

Meanwhile, the top losers in the past 24 hours were: XDC Network (XDC) -2.3%; MANTRA (OM) -1.69% and Helium (HNT) -0.4%.