Cryptocurrency markets are trading lower on Wednesday despite the Federal Reserve announcing a 0.25% rate cut in its latest FOMC meet.

Notable Statistics:

• IntoTheBlock data shows large transaction volume decreasing by 3.4% and daily active addresses falling by 12.8%. Transactions greater than $100,000 are down from 16,509 to 14,557 in a single day. Exchanges netflows are up by 94%.

• Coinglass data reports 148,690 traders were liquidated in the past 24 hours for $367.69 million.

• Crypto chart analyst Ali Martinez noted that in last three FOMC meetings, BTC dominance dropped and altcoins rebounded. He is curious to see what happens now.

Notable Developments:

• Hong Kong Approves Four New Crypto Exchanges, 'Positioning Itself As A Key Hub,' Expert Says

• Token-Based M&A Deals Face Growing Hurdles As Crypto Firms Seek Survival Options

• MicroStrategy's Aggressive Bitcoin Strategy Raises Eyebrows In Crypto Community

• Bybit Suspends Crypto Operations In France Amid Rising Regulatory Tensions

• CleanSpark Is Outpacing Bitcoin Mining Peers Wednesday: What's Going On?

Top Gainers:

Trader Notes: With Bitcoin prices continuing to drop after the Federal Reserve's 0.25% interest rate cut, crypto trader Jelle notes that Bitcoin is still holding key support levels, stating, "Time to let the post-event dust settle, and then we can get this show on the road; price discovery."

Trader Scient highlighted Bitcoin's rejection at the channel top near $108,000, an expected move. However, he remains optimistic about the bullish trend within the uptrend channel, adding, "These tend to break to the upside."

Scient suggests bidding around the $99,000-$100,000 range if a breakdown occurs. For a breakout, he is targeting $118,000 and $130,000 as potential local tops by January 2025.

Crypto chart analyst Ali Martinez outlined three correction phases leading to a potential bull market peak at $220,000, drawing parallels to Bitcoin's patterns from 2017 and 2020.

If #Bitcoin $BTC behaves like in 2017 and 2020, then there will be a brief correction after reaching $110,000, a steep correction after hitting $125,000, a big correction at $150,000, and the end of the bull market at $220,000! pic.twitter.com/zcWG75SYvL

— Ali (@ali_charts) December 18, 2024

In another tweet, Martinez identified $105,400 $105,400 as a critical level for invalidating the bearish outlook, noting that Bitcoin has already "broken out of a head-and-shoulders pattern, projecting a target of $99,000."