The global crypto community completed summing up the BTC in 2021 and began to speculate about the movement of the asset price in 2022. Despite the gradual slide of Bitcoin to the $42k–$45k range, market analysts are mostly positive about the start of the year. The main cryptocurrency is predicted to set a new all-time high around $100k and accelerate the pace of digital asset adoption around the world.

Analysts of the investment giant Goldman Sachs shared their positive conclusions and forecasts. The bank agrees with the opinion that Bitcoin has surpassed all classes of traditional assets in terms of growth rates. Experts are confident that the trend will continue in 2022. The investment bank said that large institutional investors are considering BTC as an asset to preserve the value of other funds, mostly fiat. Goldman Sachs analysts have also suggested that Bitcoin will expand its audience to 4 billion users in the long term.

If we look at the bank's main report on the cryptocurrency industry, it can be noted that experts see more potential in ETH due to the value of the blockchain. The investment giant is betting on continued growth in the DeFi and NFT markets, and therefore expects more growth from the main altcoin.

BTC has reduced its market position from 70% to 40%, and therefore it can be concluded that the main cryptocurrency will not be able to maintain its leadership in the long term by hedging risks.

Therefore, I assume that in the second half of 2022, we will see the expansion of Bitcoin's functionality and its entry into the DeFi and NFT market. The first attempts to bring BTC into fast-growing areas were made at the end of 2021 thanks to third-party blockchains that support smart contracts. Most likely, this trend will continue and by the end of 2022 Bitcoin will expand its functionality and enter the DeFi and NFT market.

However, in early January 2022, the main cryptocurrency continues to move within a narrow fluctuation range of $45k–$48k. Over the past day, the asset has fallen in price by 1% and as of 11:00 UTC, it is trading in the region of $46.7k. On narrow timeframes, sellers continue to dominate, as a result, the price gradually declines towards the key support zone at $45.7k.

On the daily chart, the technical picture also looks vague: since December 29, the price has not left the narrow range of $48.6k–$45.7k. During this period, six uncertain candles have formed, which indicates that sellers are weakening. But this cannot be considered a bullish signal either, since there are still no strong buyers in the market. Technical indicators echo the price movement and balance on the verge of exiting the optimal zone.

In general, a strong medium-term downtrend has formed in the Bitcoin market. But sellers are unable to develop it, as evidenced by the uncertainty of price movements in recent days. At the same time, the "whales" continue to accumulate free BTC volumes. The third-largest Bitcoin investor today, December 4, purchased 456 coins worth $21 million. The market does not sell its reserves, which speaks of belief in the growth of the cryptocurrency. Therefore, we continue to keep our capital in stablecoins and wait for the activation of the main consumer mass of BTC to begin the recovery phase.