Bitcoin ticked back toward the $43,000 mark during European morning trading hours having slipped down to $42,173.76 during the Asian session. At the time of writing BTC is trading at $42,884, down just 0.45% in the last 24 hours. On the last working day of 2023, bitcoin looks set to close the year up around 158% against its price of around $16,500 12 months ago. The CoinDesk Market Index, a measure of the weighted performance of the digital-asset market, gained 139% in 2023.

(CoinDesk)

Privacy tokens dash, monero and ZCash slumped as much as 10% after crypto exchange OKX said it will delist their trading pairs on Jan. 5. The exchange is making the move "based on feedback from users and the OKX Token Delisting/Hiding Guideline," OKX wrote on its website. While OKX did not explicitly say it was banning the tokens because they offer enhanced privacy for transactions, many of those listed fall into that category. Privacy coins are cryptocurrencies that preserve anonymity by obscuring the flow of money across their networks. They make it difficult to work out who sent what to whom, which is useful for those who do not want their financial activity to be monitored and, not surprisingly, are unpopular with regulators.

The Avalanche Foundation, which supports the Avalanche blockchain ecosystem, said it is considering buying meme coins as part of a drive that recognizes the distinct niches of the cryptocurrency market. Avalanche-based meme coins like COQ, husky and shibx have gained as much as 25% in the last 24 hours, with most of those gains coming after the foundation's announcement. The selection process will be based on criteria such as the number of holders, liquidity thresholds, project maturity and overall social sentiment, the foundation said in a post on X. “These coins, often inspired by internet culture and humor, go beyond mere utility assets; they represent the collective spirit and shared interests of diverse crypto communities,” the post read.

Bitcoin worth $1.19 billion left exchanges on Wednesday, the largest single-day outflow since Dec. 14, 2022, according to data from Glassnode.

Net outflows from exchanges are often seen as a bullish indicator as they represent investors' desire to take direct custody of their coins and thus adopt a long-term holding strategy.

With around $770 million worth of BTC leaving Coinbase alone, according to analytics firm CryptoQuant, there is speculation institutional investors are pre-empting the launch of a spot bitcoin ETF in the U.S. in January. Coinbase is the custodian for nine of the 12 applications to list such a fund.

The overall bitcoin balance in wallets tied to centralized exchanges has dropped to its lowest level since 2018, which can be an indication of weakening supply-side pressures and potential for price appreciation.

- Omkar Godbole