Major cryptocurrencies were trading mixed on Wednesday evening, on the optimism surrounding the potential approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and the impact of the upcoming BTC mining reward halving.

What Happened: Bitcoin, after experiencing an impressive surge of approximately 15% in the last 72 hours, is currently showing minimal fluctuations on Wednesday, with its price hovering close to $44,000 levels.

In other news, Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s guilty plea for violating the Bank Secrecy Act has been accepted by a federal judge. However, the judge has yet to determine whether Zhao can return to the United Arab Emirates prior to his sentencing in February.

The Labor Department released data indicating that private sector job creation decelerated in November, with wages experiencing their slowest growth in over two years, according to a report by payrolls processing firm ADP on Wednesday.

The report revealed that companies added a mere 103,000 workers during November, which was slightly lower than the revised figure of 106,000 recorded in October. 

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The global crypto market cap has reached $1.60 trillion, marking a 1.18% increase in the last 24 hours.

U.S. stocks faced a decline on Wednesday as investors analyzed data showing a decrease in inflation and awaited the release of the jobs report.The S&P 500 witnessed a 0.39% drop, reaching 4,549.34, while the Nasdaq Composite experienced a 0.58% decline, settling at 14,146.71. This marked the third consecutive day of losses for the 30-stock Dow and the S&P 500, which hadn’t occurred since October for both indexes.

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Analyst Notes: Cryptocurrency analyst Michael Van de Poppe has an important reminder for investors: corrections in the market are inevitable, and when they occur, they will happen swiftly. “An approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF is the largest event in the past years, definitely. It doesn’t mean markets are going to be moving in a ballistic manner to $200K in one-go. Take your profits and buy corrections.”

Eli Taranto, Executive Director at EQI Bank, in a note seen by Benzinga, said, “As the crypto market rallies data released today seems to suggest traders may be switching from BTC to ETH as investors look to secure positions in utility based assets. 

He added, “Interestingly, this emerging bull market seems to be standing on pillars rather than just legs, as retail FOMO is fueled by institutional mainstream know-how. As Wall Street comes for Bitcoin, it still may see lower levels of $38-39K before accelerating. Retail investors still form buying decisions on opinions, rather than facts which leaves BTC exposed to much volatility.. “

Pseudonymous analyst Bluntz said that Bitcoin underwent a consolidation period below the $40,000 mark for approximately 38 days, spanning from late October until the end of November. “We just had a very nice and healthy month-long vertical accumulation on BTC, these sideways corrections build steam for the next leg up which I believe will take us up to $46,000+ minimum. Enjoy the Santa rally, ho ho ho.” 

Joe Vezzani, CEO and founder of LunarCrush, a social media analytics tool, shared a BTC mining chart.  “This is truly the most incredible chart in Bitcoin. Every 2,016 blocks the Bitcoin network calculates the time it took to mine these blocks versus what it expects the time should be of 20,160 minutes (two weeks). If the time is less than expected, the network makes it statistically harder to mine. The baseline demand for mining Bitcoin has risen through this ENTIRE bear market. Holy f*ck*ng bullish!”

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