The Bitcoin price recently spiked from $3,830 to $4,051 by around five percent. Bitcoin has now broken above its resistance level that was previously set around $3,900. Bitcoin’s upwards move has sent the overall markets surging. The sudden increase in the price of Bitcoin led other major crypto assets to spike in value.
Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, EOS, and Stellar recorded gains in the range of 3 to 12 percent on the day, demonstrating solid momentum over the last 24 hours.
Bitcoin is showing signs of increasing buying pressure, many altcoins have not yet been able to break above their resistance levels, with Ethereum still trading below $160.
The cryptocurrency’s price action is certainly a positive development for the, but one analyst claims that it must maintain above this price level for the rest of the day in order for him to turn bullish.
Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at eToro, also mentioned the latest move up in a recent tweet, saying that Bitcoin’s big test remains at $5,000.
Cryptocurrency trader with an online alias “The Crypto Dog” said, the valuation of cryptocurrencies would have to break out of major resistance levels in the range of $160 billion to $180 billion to call for a convincing short-term rally.
Altcoins Jump, Ethereum Faces Strong Resistance
Although most altcoins have surged, Ethereum is still stuck under $160, which is becoming an increasingly strong resistance level. At the time of writing, Ethereum is trading up marginally at its current price of $152.
Ethereum’s price has climbed significantly over the past month on investor’s expectations for its upcoming Constantinople fork event which is scheduled to occur around January 16th. Several weeks ago, in mid-December, Ethereum was trading at $83, from which it is currently trading up over 90%.
Ripple, XRP is currently trading up 3.2% at $0.369 and is still trading below its one-week highs of $0.38. Litecoin is one of today’s best performing altcoins and is trading up nearly 12% at its current price of $39.3. Litecoin is up from weekly lows of $30.
For three months the market has hovered between $100 and $140 billion. As seen in the yearly chart below, short-term volatility in a low price range doesn’t present a proper accumulation period.
Many traders anticipate an increase in market capitalization to $180 billion as a potential catalyst for a mid-term rally. Even a recovery to $200-$250 billion range could still leave the market vulnerable to a future additional drop in value.
There exists several catalysts in the likes of the scheduled launch of Bakkt, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s decision on the VanEck Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) filing, and the development of Nasdaq’s Bitcoin futures market that may contribute to a potential rally of cryptocurrencies in the first quarter of 2019.
