Bitcoin blows past its previous 2020 high while ether’s crypto market share dips from its 2020 high in September.
Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $12,709 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 6.4% over the previous 24 hours.
Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $11,863-$12,916
BTC above its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bullish signal for market technicians.
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Bitcoin trading on Bitstamp since Oct. 19.
Source: TradingView
Bitcoin’s price has been on a tear this week, rising for the third straight day and hitting as high as $12,916 on spot exchange Bitstamp on Wednesday. The recent development from payments firm PayPal confirming it will incorporate crypto for its users and merchants helped sparked the record 2020 high for the world’s oldest cryptocurrency, at $12,709 as of press time.
“PayPal dropped the most important piece of news for large retail adoption this year, full support for bitcoin,” noted Henrik Kugelberg, an over-the-counter crypto trader based in Sweden. PayPal’s stock price (NASDAQ: PYPL) is also hitting record highs in 2020 and is up 92% this year so far.
PayPal Holdings daily trading in 2020.
Source: TradingView
The potential for bitcoin to be inserted further into consumer finance is what is helping its bull run, noted Zac Prince, CEO of crypto lender BlockFi. “This coalescing of fintech and bitcoin is yet another bullish development for investors,” he said. “It’s going to be an exciting 12 months ahead as bitcoin continues to expand further into consumer finance.”
It is not just the PayPal news helping bitcoin trend higher, noted Micah Erstling, a trader at GSR. “It’s promising to see bitcoin holding above the $12,000 mark with continued institutional interest and wider regulated adoption taking place,” Erstling told CoinDesk. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s speech on central bank digital currencies (CBDC) “clearly demonstrates that digital assets are being taken seriously, while Square and PayPal headlines are fueling a better digital ecosystem via payments and treasury.”
Daily spot trading on Bitstamp since 2019.
Source: TradingView
The last time bitcoin hit this price level was back on July 10, 2019. The overall excitement has led to volume on major USD/BTC spot exchanges Wednesday that were much higher than normal, at $1,165,166,691 as of press time. In fact, the last time volume was so high was back on Sept. 4, when daily volume was $1,089,417,516.
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Volume on major USD/BTC spot exchanges the past two months.
Source: Shuai Hao/CoinDesk Research
Several market analysts see bitcoin heading much higher before 2020 is over, including Katie Stockton, a technical analyst for Fairlead Strategies. “The breakout in July put the next major resistance on the chart at the 2019 high, aligned with a long-term Fibonacci retracement level near $14,000, she said. “We think a test of this level is likely in the months ahead.”
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