Is There a Holiday Bitcoin Rally in the Works?

On-chain data suggests bullish sentiment might be rising for bitcoin

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by Axel Rangel

share

key takeaways

  • The unspent miner supply of crypto is closing in at all-time highs, which suggests that miners are holding on to their bitcoin in anticipation of an upcoming bull market
  • Singapore-based QCP capital wrote in a recent note that it expects a squeeze to take place over the holidays and into 2022 as liquidity thins out

Bitcoin has been range bound for most of December, stuck in a rut after the crash earlier this month that sent its price dropping from $57,000 to just above $48,000. But this might change over the course of the holiday period, according to two notes that came out today.

London-based GlobalBlock argues that some on-chain metrics are beginning to look bullish for bitcoin, after altcoins had some dramatic upwards moves earlier this week. The firm argues that the number of coins going unspent by miners is indicative of a belief by miners that upwards price action is on the horizon.

“On-chain metrics continue to be bullish as the unspent miner supply closes in on all-time-highs. These are the coins that are issued to miners as a reward for solving a block but have never been spent on-chain,” GlobalBlock’s Marcus Sotiriou wrote.

“This shows the sentiment of miners and, by holding their mined Bitcoin, this suggests that they anticipate significant price rise in the short to mid-term.”


Sotiriou added that he believes that Visa’s recent announcement that it was doubling-down on crypto adoption via its new crypto advisory division is also quite bullish for asset prices.

“Crypto being incorporated into the network effects of giants like Visa is how I think the crypto industry will on board billions of users over the next decade and hence avoid a multiyear bear market as seen in previous cycles,” he wrote.

In a note published Wednesday, Singapore’s QCP capital wrote that it was “surprised at the massive volume of option selling across the board.”

The firm said it believes that liquidity will thin out into the holidays and into 2022, and there will likely be a topside squeeze during that time.

Bitcoin started the Wednesday trading session in the US at about $49,200, up 0.3%, according to CoinGecko.


Get the day’s top crypto news and insights delivered to your inbox every evening. Subscribe to Blockworks’ free newsletter now.


Tags

Upcoming Events

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

morpho 2 graphic.png

Research

Utilizing a ‘DeFi Mullet’ approach, Coinbase’s Bitcoin-backed loans integration with Morpho demonstrates a powerful blueprint for CEXs to monetize dormant assets by expanding adoption of wrapped products (cbBTC, USDC) while also supporting native and/or preferred DeFi ecosystems (Base) which can further lead to downstream growth in onchain liquidity and increased utilization of the related assets.

article-image

Bitcoin’s managing to hold up, but a selloff could pave the way for an even more aggressive altcoin reaction

article-image

M^0’s first Solana user will be a platform offering banking-like services with stablecoins

article-image

The agency has “declared effective” Galaxy’s registration statement to list on the Nasdaq

article-image

Latest rise for Treasurys may signal that investors could be pulling out of bonds

article-image

Investors continue to digest the Trump administration’s mixed messages on tariff policies

article-image

Ripple will buy Hidden Road in a 10-digit deal, as crypto becomes more entwined with TradFi