Bitcoin has followed through with yesterday’s bullish momentum and was pushed above the $4,000 level due to increased buying pressure. Bitcoin’s latest upwards push has allowed many altcoins to surge, with Bitcoin Cash being today’s best performing cryptocurrency.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is trading up over 7% at its current price of $4,030, up from yesterday’s lows of $3,700 by nearly 9%. Although today’s price action has been positive for the embattled cryptocurrency, it appears to face resistance in the $4,200 region and has been rejected several times after touching this price region throughout the day.
Analysts Cautiously Optimistic About Latest Rally
Investors have clearly welcomed this latest rally with open arms, and many investors believe that this is the fabled “Santa Claus rally” that was expected to occur towards the end of the year. Although the market’s bullish response to the recent lows is certainly positive, analysts are warning investors against getting too excited about the current price action.
Mati Greenspan, a senior market analyst at eToro, doubled down on his recent comments regarding the current rally being the result of short sellers closing their positions, telling CNBC that although the rally may be a short squeeze, it could form a long-term bottom for the markets:
"The surge on Monday represents a strong push off the key support level of $3,000 per coin. This is an extremely significant movement that may end up creating a floor for the battered down cryptocurrency."
Charles Hayter, the chief executive officer of cryptocurrency price comparison website, CryptoCompare, also spoke to CNBC, speculating that the current rally could be the result of investors recognizing that the markets were oversold at their recent lows:
"The maxim of buy when there's blood on the streets could be influencing some to gain exposure at this nadir prior to the new year."
Although both Greenspan and Hayter appear to be cautiously optimistic about the current market conditions, Alex Krüger, an economist who focuses primarily on cryptocurrencies, told his 22 thousand Twitter followers that in the long term, the crypto markets will likely trade within a wide range, meaning that there is no reason for investors to “FOMO into” the markets.
“Crypto bullish talk is increasing. Some are deriding bears looking for lower prices. Most of these bulls lost a fortune, are deeply underwater, and are actually best ignored… Crypto simply stopped falling. Nothing else has changed. No reason to expect a rabid bull run yet. May easily print new lows in the following weeks. A wide range is IMO the most likely scenario to ensue. Nothing to FOMO into,” Krüger said.
Altcoins Trade Up Led by Bitcoin Cash
Bitcoin’s climb to $4,000 has allowed the general cryptocurrency markets to surge, with today’s market being led by Bitcoin Cash.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is trading up 46% at its current price of $192. BCH has been one of the worst performing altcoins over the past several weeks and is currently trading up 156% from its recently established all-time-low of $75.
Bitcoin SV (BSV), BCH’s hard fork offshoot, is the second best performing major altcoin, and is trading up 25% at its current price of $111. BSV has significantly underperformed BCH over the past several days and is currently behind BCH’s market cap by nearly $1.4 billion.
Ethereum (ETH) is also performing quite well today and is trading up nearly 13% at its current price of $115.
XRP is currently underperforming Bitcoin and is trading up under 5% at its current price of $0.373.