Bitcoin’s (BTC) relief rally gathered pace on Thursday, pushing prices to two-week highs above the psychological hurdle of $4,000.
The cryptocurrency rose to a high of $4,017 at 08:35 UTC – a level last seen on Dec. 5 – according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index (BPI). Its market capitalization also hit a two-week high of $69.70 billion.
At press time, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization traded at $4,000 – up 28 percent from the 15-month low of $3,122 reached earlier this week.
The recovery rally was overdue as BTC looked extremely oversold, having dropped 50 percent in the last four weeks.
The bounce in the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is again boding well for the broader markets.
As of writing, names like ethereum’s ETH token, XRP, stellar, litecoin are reporting 2 percent gains each. Bitcoin cash is up 30 percent and lesser-known cryptocurrencies like stratis and Chainlink have gained 45 percent and 27 percent, respectively, in the last 24 hours, as per CoinMarketCap.
Meanwhile, losing side includes maker and linkey, both down 5 percent.
Bitcoin’s move above $4,000 validates the bullish setup seen in the short-term technical charts. As a result, the focus now is on the next major resistance lined up at $4,400 (Dec. 29 high).
Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.
Bitcoin image via Shutterstock; charts by Trading View