• Santiment predicts a rather boring period in the crypto market after a notable polarization between the bulls and the bears in the past few weeks.
• With some altcoins still in the early stages of a breakout, Santiment expects the total altcoin market cap to continue rising but advised traders to take a cautious approach with heightened FOMO.

The crypto market has enjoyed a spicy second half of the year led by new meme coins and altcoins with vibrant developer ecosystems like Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), and NEAR Protocol (NEAR). As 2023 comes to an end, profit-taking has accelerated in both Bitcoin and the altcoin market despite the high optimism in a continued bull market.

According to market intelligence platform Santiment, crypto traders should proceed with extra caution of possible market reversal amid heightened FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

Moreover, Santiment argued that increased FOMO in mainstream social media platforms often leads to price tops, thus holding a bullish perspective at current levels needs an extra cautious approach.

“Solana up 13 percent, Stacks up 23 percent, and NEAR protocol up 17 percent are the top trending assets, according to rising social volumes. In each case, when there is mainstream talk at this level, FOMO will create price tops. If holding any, take a cautious approach,” Santiment noted.

Crypto Silver Lining

However, Santiment noted in a recent blog post that the crypto market cap could continue to climb amidst the FOMO and enthusiasm fall. Furthermore, a declining FOMO has in the past presented a buying opportunity to ride the next bull scenario. Nonetheless, Santiment expects crypto to enter a boring phase in the coming months before Bitcoin blows off its all-time high.

“Overall, there have been signals primarily pointing to crypto seeing a bit of a cooldown period. While many new bulls have popped out of the woodwork in the final quarter of 2023, bears have more recently been the louder ones when slight market-wide price drops began to change the narrative in the 2nd week of December. When there is major polarization between bulls and bears like we are seeing now, then oftentimes the most likely outcome is for crypto to go back into a (relatively) boring ranging period once again,” Santiment added.

The crypto market has enjoyed a bullish fourth quarter fueled by the spot Bitcoin ETF frenzy in the United States. With analysts anticipating approval of the dozen spot ETFs in January 2024, the underlying market cap could rally exponentially in the subsequent months.

Solana and NEAR Price Action

The Solana bulls have cleared a critical hurdle that will propel the altcoins towards $140 in the short term. Moreover, the SOL’s weekly Relative Strength Index (RSI) has sustained above 70 since October for the first time since the end of 2021.

However, the altcoin could retrace towards $52 if the bulls fail to defend the rising momentum in the coming weeks. NEAR price, on the other hand, has just begun its uptrend momentum after a successful retest of the macro breakout. Furthermore, the weekly RSI just broke above 70 level, indicating the bulls are in control.