Within the last hour, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) rose to $ 57,100, a level not seen since February 20, when the BTC price hit a new high of $ 58,352. The bullish breakout indicates that investor sentiment has shifted in favor of bulls, and this increases the likelihood that BTC will attempt a $ 60,000 level effort.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that Bitcoin jumped to a low of $ 52,998 in the early morning hours and reached 6.5% above the $ 57,000 level.
Today’s upward move was preceded by news that Digital Currency Group plans to buy up to $ 250 million worth of shares from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). The purchase comes at an interesting time, given that on March 8, GBTC shares traded at a 15% discount on Bitcoin’s spot price on major exchanges.
Although institutional investors can take credit for the current move, overall interest in Bitcoin is still growing. Recent data shows that 10,000 Bitcoin ATMs have been installed in the US since March 1, 2020, achieving a 57.5% increase in the number of ATM-equipped ATMs in the past year.
Bitcoin ignores the economic concerns that stocks weigh
Over the past two weeks, stock markets have been hit by a downturn in technology stocks and concerns about rising treasury yields. Many analysts had predicted that a strengthening dollar and rising treasury yields would negatively impact the Bitcoin price.
According to Chad Steinglass, head of trading at CrossTower, the “underlying flow in BTC is still incredibly good”, as large traditional financial players appear to be involved with BTC on a daily basis.
Steinglass said the recent addition of Ether (ETH) to the balance sheet of Chinese software industry Meitu is another positive development as it shows the growing prominence of cryptocurrencies in traditional finance.
Steinglass further explained that the BTC correction of the past two weeks was the result of a “massive sell-off in technology stocks” that hit GBTC hard, as the “discount on the net asset value that GBTC traded” was as high as 15% “European traders ‘got scared’ by the end of European stock markets.
Steinglass said:
I believe this has lowered the price of BTC as adventurous traders have joined to buy GBTC slowly while selling spot or futures. The fact that spot BTC prices were able to tread water during this route was very positive for me.
Altcoins follows Bitcoin outbreak
As Bitcoin strives at the $ 60,000 level, several altcoins have also lagged behind the everyday highs.
Theta (THETA), a blockchain-based video streaming platform, has risen 18% over the past 24 hours to reach a new high of $ 5.92.
Meanwhile, Polygon (MATIC) received a 33% boost on March 9 when Coinbase announced that the token would be added to Coinbase Pro.
The overall market capitalization for cryptocurrency now stands at $ 1.74 billion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 61.1%.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading movement involves risk. You must do your own research when making a decision.