Bitcoin (BTC) had another rager on Tuesday by climbing 5% against the US dollar to hit another 20-month high of $44,500.
It brings year-to-date gains for bitcoin above 165% as a combination of macroeconomic and technical factors provides a fertile market for the benchmark cryptocurrency.
Pending approval of a swathe of spot-bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has generated an immense swell of hype for mainstream US adoption of bitcoin as an asset class, while peak rates, cooling inflation and a softening US dollar have increased the risk-on appetite among investors.
Bitcoin has since fallen back below $44k, with the BTC/USDT pair swapping for $43,788.
Bitcoin’s has surged more than 160% year to date – Source: tradingview.com
Bitcoin bulls are now weighing up the likelihood of a Santa rally to bring even more festive cheer to the markets, though the seasonal calendar effect may have already been priced in.
According to Matteo Greco from Fineqia International: “Given the current market momentum, a retracement in December is plausible to reduce open interest and leverage before building an upward trend as the SEC decision (on spot-bitcon ETFs) deadline approaches.
“An approval is expected to bring short-term capital influx from the traditional finance investors, fueling the uptrend, while a rejection might trigger a short-term negative price action due to high expectations of approval by market participants.”
Ethereum (ETH) hit its own 20-month high of $2,312 in early-Wednesday trades before creeping back to $2,277 at the time of writing.
In the broader altcoin space, Avalanche (AVAX) and Dogecoin (DOGE) have steered ahead of the market by penning more than 20% in week-on-week gains each, while BNB and Ripple (XRP) have failed to capitalise on the latest swing higher in crypto prices.
Cardano (ADA) has added a little over 10% week on week, with Solana (SOL) close behind.
Global cryptocurrency market capitalisation exceeded $1.6 trillion overnight, with bitcoin dominance approaching 55%.