Bitcoin traded between $ 47,000 and $ 48,000 for much of Thursday, breaking the $ 48,000 level several times during Thursday. Traders and analysts told CoinDesk that they remain optimistic in the general market, as institutional investors’ interest in bitcoin is growing “at a surprising rate”.
- Bitcoin (BTC) is trading around $ 47,174.04 as of 21:00 UTC (4 pm ET). Gained 5.48% in the last 24 hours.
- Bitcoin 24-hour range: $ 43,057.64- $ 48,635.84 (CoinDesk 20)
- BTC above its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians.
Despite the new historic high price of bitcoin on Thursday, trading volume on the eight exchanges monitored by CoinDesk 20 remains low compared to the beginning of this week.
The market’s focus on Thursday was news that more big players are embracing bitcoin; Mastercard said it would allow merchants to receive payments in cryptocurrencies soon, and BNY Mellon has announced that it will launch a new digital custody unit.
“To put it simply, it’s really hard to be pessimistic with bitcoin now … and you don’t even have to look very deeply at all the fundamental metrics and technical indicators to feel that,” said Adam James, senior content editor at Research Arm at OKEx OKEx Insights.
“The market is bullish,” said Denis Vinokourov, head of research at digital assets brokerage Bequant. “There are no immediate fundamental factors that will cause the price to drop.”
Read More: Mastercard will allow merchants to accept encrypted payments this year
That said, bitcoin is struggling to rise after briefly rising above $ 48,000 on Thursday, according to Chad Steinglass, director of trading at CrossTower. He told CoinDesk that, in the short term, the resistance level would remain at or just below $ 50,000.
The nearest bullish hurdle will be greater, at around $ 53,000, according to Katie Stockton, technical analyst at Fairlead Strategies. She also pointed out that some overbought and oversold activities will support up to two months of price consolidation.
In the long run, said John Kramer, a broker at the market maker GSR, it is “realistic” to think that bitcoin is in a “healthy” run for $ 100,000 in late summer.
“We expect more banks to offer custody and additional products, as well as other companies that follow Tesla and MicroStrategy’s example,” said Kramer. “In addition, there is still additional stimulus at the table, which was what started this rally last spring.”
However, in the derivatives market, options traders do not seem convinced that bitcoin will reach $ 100,000 anytime soon. Based on current prices, the market has assigned a 12% probability that this price will be reached before the end of this year, as reported by CoinDesk.
Ethereum killers are killing as the rate of Ethereum gas increases
The second largest market capitalization cryptocurrency, ether (ETH), rose on Thursday, trading around $ 1,769.03 and rising 2.75% in 24 hours from 21:00 UTC (4:00 pm ET).
On the technical side, Joel Kruger, cryptocurrency strategist at the LMAX Digital exchange, said the initial resistance level would be the highest record ever, at around $ 1,840 on Wednesday.
“A break above [$1,840] it will open the door to a massive $ 2,000 endurance test, which represents a critical psychological barrier and measure of range of motion, ”said Kruger. “We see the first level of support at $ 1,680, with a break below to take the immediate pressure off the top and open the door for a correction back to the $ 1,500 area.”
Ether’s rise is not simply following the bitcoin price trend, according to analysts. It is largely driven by the fast-growing decentralized financial sector.
“Like these [DeFi] the projects continue to gain popularity, we will probably see a greater interest in the ether, ”Guy Hirsch, managing director of eToro in the United States, told CoinDesk. “It wouldn’t be surprising to see it reach $ 2,000 soon.”
At the same time, the significant growth of “Ethereum Killers”, including Cardano, Polkadot, Solana and Algorand, is a reflection of the frustration surrounding the high gas rates on the Ethereum blockchain. Gas refers to the internal price unit for executing transactions on Ethereum.
Read More: Cardano and Polkadot Market Caps outperform XRP as some bets on alternatives to Ethereum
“High gas rates at Ethereum are clearly presenting opportunities for tier 1 smart contract platforms,” said Jason Lau, director of operations for the San Francisco-based OKCoin crypto exchange. “As Ethereum continues its process of several years of launching Eth 2.0 to address its scaling issues, it remains to be seen whether developers will migrate their applications to other platforms.”
Others, however, rejected any threats to Ethereum.
“The price performance [of “Ethereum killers”] it does not necessarily mean that there is a real threat to derail Ethereum’s dominance, ”said Vinokourov. “In fact, the DeFi market continues to grow, and so does ether.”
Other markets
The digital assets in CoinDesk 20 are mostly green on Thursday. Notable winner from 21:00 UTC (16:00 ET):
- Oil fell 1.26%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $ 57.94.
- Gold was at 0.94% red and $ 1,825.71 at the time of this publication.
- Yield on 10-year US Treasury bonds rose on Thursday by 1.162%.
