Bitcoin (BTC) has reached a new high surpassing the psychological barrier of $20K, the first since November 2022. The broader cryptocurrency market witnessed an impressive streak in the last 24 hours marching towards the $1 trillion mark.
Bitcoin Fires Up
According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin (BTC) is up 1.82% in the last 24 hours to trade at $21,101. The world’s largest cryptocurrency soared a whopping 22.64% over the past one week as the Federal Reserve is on track to downshift to smaller interest-rate increases following the further cooling in inflation numbers. The price of BTC was stuck in a narrow range around $16,000 to $17,000 for several weeks before the latest breakout. In the aftermath of the collapse of FTX, Bitcoin (BTC) had plunged to a two year low falling to $15,480.
This marks the first time the flagship token has been above USD 20,000 in over two months. Since the onset of the new year Bitcoin (BTC) along with the broader crypto market have been on an upward trajectory. The bellwether token has kicked off the year off on a banner note, advancing roughly 17% since the end of December. In a statement, Edul Patel, CEO at Mudrex said,
“Bitcoin reached $21,000, as investors are optimistic that it may have reached its lowest point and that inflation may have peaked. The gains came after a report on consumer prices showed a decline in January inflation numbers. The Federal Reserve is also likely to reduce interest rate increases.”
ETH Surges Due to Upcoming Software Upgrade
Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH) rose 2.32% over the past 24 hours, currently trading at $1,566. Ether has enjoyed a price surge in the past couple of weeks gainin more than 19%. One of the major factors that has triggerd the price of Ethereum (ETH) seems to be the upcoming “Shanghai Upgrade”.
Furthermore, recently, on-chain analytics platform, Santiment had also suggested an uptick in “Ethereum Whale” activity which may have been added to the ETH rally. On January 5, Santiment tweeted that over 600 transactions worth more than $100K took place on the Ethereum blockchain.
🐳 As #altcoins have heated up, #Ethereum quietly rebounded back above $1,260 for the 1st time in 3 weeks. Though not quite at the level of the big whale dip buys on December 16th ($ETH's local price bottom), whales are showing increased interest again. https://t.co/9ihbtrSBbF pic.twitter.com/xBtBJlpxgV
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) January 4, 2023
Bulls Return to the Market
The overall crypto market has increased substantially over the weekend. At the time of writing, the global crypto market cap is up 2.36% to $992.6 billion. Interestingly, in the early hours of Monday, the crypto market cap had zoomed past $1 trillion for the first time since early November. Several market experts believe the current price movement is a sign of recovery and expect the bullish momentum to continue. Shivam Thakral, CEO at BuyUcoin explained,
“This is a strong sign that bulls are returning to the market with US central banks successfully bringing down the inflation and saving the economy from slipping into recession. The current market momentum is expected to continue if the macroeconomic factors remain favourable.”
On the other hand, other major altcoins have performed fairly well with Cardano (ADA) and Solana (SOL) jumping 1% and 4%, respectively. Despite experiencing one of the worst downturns in 2022, both SOL and ADA have managed to post formidable weekly gains in the last seven days. Avalanche (AVAX) increased 1.12% in the last 24 hours and a massive 32% over the past one week. Popular memecoins such as Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba (INU) are also been trading in green over the last 24 hours.
