The Binance Coin price held steady above $700, as a unique chart pattern pointed to more gains, potentially to $1,155 in the near term.

Binance Coin (BNB) was trading at $707 on Jan. 1, a few points below the December high of $794 and 200% above its 2024 low.

The BNB coin faces three key catalysts that could push it much higher in the first quarter of this year. 

First, the network has continued to burn its tokens, a move that is expected to reduce its outstanding coins to 100 million from 144 million over time. According to BNB Burn, the network is expected to conclude a 1.63 million token burn worth $1.01 billion soon. It will then burn another 1.5 million BNB coins worth $1.089 billion in the first quarter.

On top of these quarterly autoburns, the network burns more tokens each day from the gas fees generated. This approach has incinerated 246,950 coins with over $175 million since its inception a few years ago. 

These burns will create more value for BNB price over time by making its tokens rarer and increasing the sums staking investors get. Binance Coin’s staking yield has dropped from 12% in November to 2.3% as the staking ratio rose slightly to 20.32%.

Second, the Binance Smart Chain ecosystem is doing relatively well even as competition in the industry rose. It has over 905,640 active addresses, a total value locked of over $5.5 billion and stablecoins worth $6.86 billion. 

BNB Chain’s DEX protocols have continued doing well. The volume handled by its protocols rose by 10% in the last seven days to over $13.42 billion. That has brought the total volume since inception to $1.16 trillion, making it the second-biggest player after Ethereum (ETH), which has handled over $3.4 trillion.

BNB price strong technicals

Third, Binance Coin has some strong technicals that may push it much higher in the longer term. The weekly chart shows that the BNB price has been slowly forming a cup and handle chart pattern, a popular sign of continuation. 

The cup section formed between 2021 and June 2024, while the handle area formed between June and November. We find the depth of the cup is about 74%. By measuring the same distance from the cup’s upper side, the BNB price target is $1,155, which is about 63% above the current level.

Pepe coin price is ending 2024 on a high note as it surged by almost 20%, erasing some of the losses made this month.

Pepe (PEPE), the third-biggest meme coin, climbed to a high of $0.000022, its highest level since Dec. 18. The rebound came after Elon Musk, the wealthiest person in the world, updated his X profile picture to a Pepe-like image.

Musk, one of the most influential people globally, has over 234 million followers on X, close ties with Donald Trump, and a fortune of nearly half a trillion dollars. 

His action could indicate growing interest in Pepe, similar to his previous engagement with Dogecoin (DOGE). Musk’s tweets about Dogecoin in 2020 preceded its public surge in 2021, helping DOGE become the largest meme coin with a market cap of over $47 billion.

Pepe has experienced remarkable growth since its inception in 2023, with its market cap soaring from near zero to a peak of over $10 billion earlier this month. The token has surged by nearly 1,500% in the past year, ranking it among the best-performing meme coins.

Pepe has created significant wealth for many investors. According to IntoTheBlock, 70% of all holders, or about 178,000 people, are in profit, while 24% have incurred losses. The remaining investors are at breakeven.

Pepe Coin price analysis

The daily chart shows that Pepe coin price peaked at $0.00002833 earlier this month before pulling back. It bottomed at $0.0000145, which coincides with the 50% Fibonacci Retracement point, and formed a hammer pattern. This pattern, characterized by a small body and a long lower shadow, is often a bullish signal.

Pepe has now climbed above the key resistance level of $0.00001950, its highest swing on Dec. 24. It is also trading above the 200-day and 100-day moving averages.

Given these bullish indicators, Pepe is likely to continue rising, with bulls targeting the year-to-date high of $0.00002833, which represents about a 33% upside from the current level. Potential catalysts for further gains include Donald Trump’s upcoming swearing-in and the expected FTX distributions. Some of the $16 billion from the distributions may be reinvested into cryptocurrencies, potentially boosting Pepe.

Disclaimer: The analyst who wrote this piece owns shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR)

It’s been a tough month for MicroStrategy (MSTR), the software developer turned bitcoin (BTC) accumulator. Its stock has tumbled almost 50% since November, when it joined the Nasdaq 100 index and peaked at a 600% gain since the start of the year.

That still leaves the Tysons Corner, Virginia-based company a whopping 342% ahead in 2024, the biggest return among the highest-profile crypto-linked assets in traditional finance (TradFi).

It’s been a volatile year, packed with geopolitical and technological developments to rattle financial markets. The continuing wars in eastern Europe and the Middle East, elections across the globe, the unwinding of the yen carry trade in August and the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) have all left their marks.

MicroStrategy’s gain is almost double that of Nvidia (NVDA), the chipmaker whose production of integrated circuits needed for AI applications fueled a 185% return, the best among the so-called magnificent seven tech stocks. The next best, Meta Platforms (META), turned in 71%.

Bitcoin itself rose 100% in a year that included April’s reward halving and multiple record highs. Demand for the largest cryptocurrency was driven by the January approval of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. Bitcoin outperformed two of its biggest competitors, ether (ETH), up 42%, and Solana (SOL), up 79%.

Among the ETF’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) also returned over 100% and became the fastest ETF in history to hit $50 billion in assets.

Bitcoin mining companies, on the whole, disappointed. Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI), a proxy for mining stocks, rose just under 30%. That’s despite demand for the miners’ computing capabilities and power supply agreements from artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC) companies. Still, individual companies benefited, in particular, Bitdeer (BTDR),which added 151%, and WULF (WULF), which gained 131%.

Nevertheless, the miners’ gains beat the broader equities market. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index (NDX) added 28% while the S&P 500 Index (SPX) rose 25%. The S&P 500 also trailed behind gold’s 27% increase. The precious commodity has now topped the equity gauge in three of the past five years.

Concerns about U.S. inflation and the country’s budget deficit added to the geopolitical uncertainties to prompt a massive rise in U.S. treasury yields, which move in the opposite direction to price.

The yield on the 10-Year Treasury added 15% to 4.5% over the course of the year, and surprisingly gained a full 100 basis points since the Federal Reserve started cutting interest rates in September.

The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT), which tracks bond prices, dropped 10% this year and has lost 40% in the past five years.

The dollar, on the other hand, showed its strength. The DXY Index (DXY), a measure of the greenback against a basket of the currencies of the U.S.’ biggest trading partners, rose to the highest since September 2022.

West Texas Intermediate (USOIL), the benchmark oil price in the U.S., ends the year little changed, up less than 1% to around $71 a barrel. But it was a bumpy ride, with the price rising to almost $90 at some points in the past 12 months.

As we head into the new year, all eyes will be on the debt ceiling discussion, the policies of President-elect Donald Trump and whether the U.S. can continue with its impressive growth story.