Bitcoin On Wednesday, it climbed back above $96,000, recovering slightly from this week’s pullback that took it from record highs.
The price of the flagship cryptocurrency was last up almost 6% at $96,676.70, according to Coin Metrics, while ether jumped more than 9% to $3,636.46. The broader crypto market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 Index, gained 7%.
Although bitcoin is widely considered a store of value and digital alternative to gold, the cryptocurrency often trades in tandem with the stock market. On Wednesday, however, it decoupled with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, down 0.6%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 also fell.
Coinbase rose over 6% as Bitcoin increased it along with other crypto stocks. Robin Hoodwhich offers crypto trading and is seen as the beneficiary of a more crypto-friendly environment in the new Trump administration, gained 3%. MicroStrategywhich trades as a proxy for bitcoin, rose 9%.
Bitcoin has been steadily breaking records since the November 5 presidential election, up about 38% during that time. On Friday, it reached $99,849.99 before testing the $90,000 support level this week.
“The bitcoin bull market has legs,” Alex Thorn, head of enterprise-wide research at Galaxy Digital, said in a report on Wednesday. “There will be corrections and hiccups, which is normal. There could even be twilight regulatory or enforcement actions from the outgoing Biden administration that disrupt markets. But a combination of growing adoption by institutions , businesses and potentially nation states, a new American model, an administration that promises to be extremely pro-bitcoin, and solid positioning and network data that suggests a rise in the short and medium term.
Katie Stockton of Fairlead Strategies told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday that at current levels, bitcoin investors are “in uncharted territory in terms of resistance — which, of course, doesn’t exist.” Meanwhile, support is around $74,000. Bitcoin hit $92,000 for the first time just two weeks ago on November 13.
“Bitcoin tends to stair both down and up, which means it sees these very sharp rises and then consolidates,” she said. “People should… be willing to give more space to Bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies in general, because of the volatility there and also the long-term potential.”
Bitcoin is up 126% for the year and is still widely expected to hit the $100,000 mark before the end of the year. Ether, the best performer since the elections, has lagged Bitcoin since the start of the year with a gain of 59%.
