Bitcoin sailed past the $46,000 early Friday morning, notching another 4% gain from the day before.
At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is $46,457.04, 8% higher than it was the same time last week, according to CoinGecko data. This is the highest BTC price levels observed since last month.
The bullish momentum comes amid a broader anticipation of a historic breakout among altcoins, highlighting an overall positive sentiment within the cryptocurrency market.
Analysts have said that a number of factors—including hoarding by “whales”—are leading the asset to edge higher.
CryptoQuant’s head of research, Julio Moreno, told Decrypt yesterday that “prices found a bottom as sell pressure was exhausted once short-term holder unrealized profit margins became zero,” but that more “whales” were buying BTC this year.
He added that their total holdings are now at the highest since November 2022, at 3.9 million BTC.
One popular trader, who goes by Crypto Tony on Twitter, predicted that Bitcoin could rise as high as $47,000 today.
Michaël van de Poppe, CEO & Founder MN Trading Consultancy, said on Twitter he thinks that the strong price action could mean Bitcoin rises as high as $51,000 before the Bitcoin halving. So-named because the regularly scheduled event reduces the rewards paid to miners who validate transactions on the Bitcoin network by half. Current estimates are that it will take place in mid-April, according to NiceHash.
Other analysts have suggested the current price action is the result of U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) launching last month. There are signs that traders who sold BTC at the launch are now seeking reentry into the market—another indicator of a broader market optimism regarding Bitcoin’s potential for further gains.
Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH) gained 2% since yesterday and is currently trading for $2,467.36, according to CoinGecko data. Solana (SOL) also made big gains, increasing 4.2% in the past 24 hours and trading for $105.95 at the time of writing.
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