Bitcoin hit a new record high on Friday, with investors continuing to reap part of its limited offering. The ether futures market has also broken records as derivatives traders check the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
- Bitcoin (BTC) is trading around $ 39,304 as of 21:00 UTC (16:00 ET). Gaining 0.64% in the last 24 hours.
- Bitcoin 24-hour range: $ 36,579- $ 41,962 (CoinDesk 20)
- BTC below the 10-hour moving average, but above the 50-hour moving average on the hourly chart, a side signal for market technicians.
New highs of all time are again the subject of the day on Friday, the third consecutive day that the price of bitcoin has reached a record high. At around 15h UTC (10h ET), the price of bitcoin changed hands by $ 41,962, according to data from CoinDesk 20. The price has since dropped to $ 39,304 so far.
Read More: Over $ 41,000: Bitcoin continues to forge new records
“BTC is currently in the process of discovering prices with a lot of demand and limited supply,” Joel Edgerton, director of operations at Bitflyer USA. “Everyone who has bitcoin thinks it will go up, so they hold on.”
According to the data aggregator Glassnode, the current supply of bitcoin in circulation is 18,594,037 BTC – and investors are apparently not tired of the world’s oldest cryptocurrency.
“The continuous and relentless flow of money to BTC from institutional buyers and some retail buyers provides a significant positive trend,” said Chad Steinglass, chief trading officer at the derivative company CrossTower. “As more and more currencies are blocked in long-term investments and are essentially removed from circulation, compressing the available stock more and more.
“Everyone without BTC is afraid of losing and wants to buy,” added Edgerton of Bitflyer. “Lending [U.S. dollar] stablecoins to buy BTC is the crypto trade. ”
The three main stables – tether (USDT), US dollar currency (USDC) and dai (DAI) – together have a market capitalization of $ 28 billion, much of which consists of tether – $ 22,916,992,958, according to CoinGecko.
“The doors are wide open and buying pressure has been growing massively this year based on macrocycles, COVID-19, the US election and a feeling of general anxiety,” said Henrik Kugelberg, an over-the-counter bitcoin broker. “In the short term, I expect a drop of perhaps 15%, but it will only be a bump in the huge bull run – $ 100,000 this year is entirely possible!”
Read More: Why Joe Biden’s $ 3T stimulus package can add fuel to the Bitcoin rally
Action in the bitcoin derivatives market was also heavy. Jason Lau, director of operations for the San Francisco-based OKCoin exchange, noted that nearly $ 1 billion in settlements occurred there Thursday. “Most of these sales were purchased and it was the third highest amount since November.”
In BitMEX alone, more than $ 100 million in settlements have taken place in the local bitcoin market in the past three days, with $ 65 million in purchase settlements signaling that sale-oriented traders have been pressured against $ 42 million in the crypto equivalent of a margin call for long positions.
In the options market, Denis Vinokourov, head of research at broker Bequant, noted that traders are enjoying the $ 36,000 strike price for bitcoin.
“Given the overwhelming focus on the $ 36,000 bitcoin options for options expiring in late January, which comes with a series of plays and optionality risks, that disconnects bitcoin from the fundamentals, so to speak,” Vinokourov told CoinDesk . “It will be interesting to see if the market will be able to compartmentalize that bitcoin risk away from the rest of the market.”
Aether futures with $ 3.7 billion in interest
Ether (ETH) fell Friday, trading around $ 1,159 and falling 6.5% in 24 hours from 21:00 UTC (16:00 ET).
Read More: Ethereum 2.0 explained in 4 easy metrics
On January 1, the number of outstanding futures contracts, or OI, in the main derivative locations was US $ 2 billion. As of Thursday, OI had soared 85% to a record $ 3.7 billion, according to aggregator Skew. Binance led with $ 820 million in OI, more than 20% of the total ether futures market.
“ETH has not yet reached its previous record of more than $ 1,400,” noted Brian Mosoff, executive director of investment firm Ether Capital. “So far, there has been less access to invest in ether than in bitcoin. Pending the pending launch of CME [ether] future members of the community who are more crypto-native and have less restrictions on how to maintain ETH are probably looking to anticipate the release. ”
Other markets
The digital assets at CoinDesk 20 are in red Friday. Notable losers as of 21:00 UTC (16:00 ET):
- Oil rose 3%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $ 52.48.
- Gold was at 3.4% red and $ 1,848 so far.
- Yield on 10-year US Treasury bonds rose on Friday, jumping to 1,110 and, in the green, 2.5%.
