Bitcoin (BTC<\/a>) lost momentum at $51,500 on Dec. 24 as traders weighed the odds of a “Santa rally” coming true for Christmas.\u00a0<\/p>\n Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro<\/a> and TradingView<\/a>\u00a0saw BTC\/USD preserve its gains from Dec. 23, these totaling 6% with resistance most recently kicking in at just above $51,500.<\/p>\n Opinions were mixed<\/a>\u00a0among weary traders about the strength of the rally and whether it could endure for long.<\/p>\n Still in its familiar range despite the overnight uptick, Bitcoin needed to show its muscle on longer timeframes, Cointelegraph reported analysis as saying earlier.<\/p>\n For filbfilb, co-founder of trading platform Decentrader, a combination of low funding rates and top traders turning long at the expense of more bearish retail among other triggers served as reason to be more hopeful.<\/p>\n Bitcoin; <\/p>\n Diag Breakout Happy Christmas. pic.twitter.com\/LvRSAN8iTN<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 filbfilb (@filbfilb) December 24, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Trader analyst Rekt Capital meanwhile noted that the reversal currently meant that Bitcoin had “successfully retested” the top of a falling wedge structure in place for much of 2021. BTC\/USD had originally broken out of the wedge at the end of September.<\/p>\n #BTC<\/a> has successfully retested the top of the macro Flagging Structure as support$BTC<\/a> #Crypto<\/a> #Bitcoin<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/oWwwzblc90<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/brm5rVDyfd<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) December 24, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Data from the research arm of derivatives exchange Deribit added that funds were getting more bullish about a Bitcoin price in the mid-$50,000s in January.<\/p>\n “Additional funds jumping into the NewYear play,” the firm tweeted<\/a> on Dec. 24. <\/p>\n “This time, refocus on BTC, as one large Fund buys a strip of Jan14 52\u201356k Calls x1200 around 49.5k spot, just before spike >50k.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n At press time, BTC\/USD stood at just under $51,000.<\/p>\n Bitcoin managed to post stronger daily gains than Ether (ETH<\/a>) on the day as the largest altcoin nonetheless returned above $4,000.<\/p>\n Related:\u00a0Bitcoin needs to clear $51K to reduce the chance of new sell-off from BTC whales<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap were firmly in the green, led by ongoing success for Terra’s<\/a> LUNA<\/a> token.<\/p>\n The exception was a flat Ripple (XRP<\/a>), which had nonetheless staged its own rally earlier in the week<\/a>.<\/p>\n “And just like that, people want to buy altcoins again,” Cointelegraph contributor Micha\u00ebl van de Poppe summarized.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/s3.cointelegraph.com\/uploads\/2021-12\/6ac310da-1891-4b21-a7a0-8fe5dfd58591.png\")
BTC sees potent long-term retest<\/h2>\n
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Top traders long, normies fading the move up
OI up 2.86 bn \/ 40%
Funding low
Sitting right below 10x liquidations <\/p>\n\n
$4,000 ETH returns<\/h2>\n
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