The average bitcoin rate fell to $12,747, showing a 36% decrease compared to the week-ago indicator.

Such a sharp drop is most likely due to the fact that large investors decided to withdraw money at the height of the growth on the eve of Christmas vacations. Currently, according to Coinmarketcap data, the rate of the first cryptocurrency fluctuates around $ 14,200.

While bitcoin shows decline, Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by capitalization, began an unstable recovery after dropping from more than $800 to $625 on 24 December, and now its rate is $763. The most impressive growth within the last 24 hours was demonstrated by ReddCoin, whose rate jumped as much as 112%, and capitalization reached $633 million as of 25 December. A sharp jump occurred after the tweet of John McAfee, who called ReddCoin a "coin of the day." Previously, McAfee promised to constantly write about the most interesting altcoins. But some his followers suspect McAfee in manipulations of market prices and promotion of those coins whose teams paid him for his tweets.

Meanwhile, the sharp drop in the bitcoin rate corrected the plans of Michael Novogratz, who postponed the launch of his cryptocurrency hedge fund, saying that the rate could fall even lower and return to $8,000.

“We didn’t like market conditions, and we wanted to re-evaluate what we’re doing,” Novogratz said on Friday in a phone interview to Bloomberg. “I look pretty smart pressing the pause button right now.”

Initially, it was planned that the Galaxy Digital Assets Fund would be launched on 15 December. Novogratz warned investors about the postponement of the deadline two days before that date.

Later Novogratz clarified on Twitter, that, according to his point of view, bitcoin would consolidate in the corridor between $10,000 and $16,000, and its growth to $20,000 will occur no earlier than after 3-4 months.