Bitcoin attempted to flip $13,000 to support on Oct. 22 after a giant buy-up of spare supply sparked a bull run to $13,200.
Data from price tickers including CoinMarketCap showed BTC/USD continue gaining to reach its highest levels in over a year on Thursday.
At press time, $13,000 was forming a focal point on short timeframes, Bitcoin having reached $13,199 earlier on the day.
At $13,000, 24-hour returns stood at 6.1%, while weekly, BTC/USD had climbed by almost 15%.
Analyst eyes “mother of all scoop-ups”
As Modern Consensus reported, news that PayPal had opted to support cryptocurrency from 2021 had added to an already bullish market, putting Bitcoin back into the mainstream spotlight in the process.
This followed yet more corporate buy-ins from firms concerned about their wealth being diluted as a result of fiat money printing by world central banks.
As the market continued to accelerate, however, analysts noted that something more than just good news was fuelling the upward trajectory.
“Where did the supply come from?” Statistician Willy Woo considered on Twitter.
“250k coins ($2b+ USD) have been scooped off the speculative stock on spot exchanges into HODL. This is where the supply has come from thus far, and it was the mother of all scoop ups, previous bull runs were powered by iddy biddy tiny scoops.”
Woo was responding to observations by quant analyst PlanB, who argued that price forecasting models which predicted a fresh drop for Bitcoin—to as low as $3,000—lacked convincing evidence.
An overarching narrative stemming from both corporate and investor activity thus centered on spare supply being bought up by investors looking to save, rather than trade or short BTC.
Unsurprisingly, that was the message coming from well-known proponents both within and outside the cryptocurrency realm itself.
“I usually don’t like tweeting about Bitcoin during price pumps, but I just have to say this… #Bitcoin is the greatest savings account ever seen in human history,” Rosa-Maria Ryyti, former Miss Universe Finland winner turned Bitcoiner tweeted on Wednesday.
Bitcoin leaves macro in the shade
Bitcoin has now far outstripped all other macro assets in terms of year-to-date gains, these now sitting at 80% compared to 26.2% for gold and 6.3% for the S&P 500.
Looking to the future, Woo confirmed his existing theory that BTC/USD will continue to decouple from the rest.
“Presently 2.4% of the world population are HODLers of #Bitcoin. We are now broaching the early adopters phase. You are very early on the curve,” he wrote.
“User adoption is about to go exponential according to the adoption S-curve. This is why BTC will decouple stocks, and it is very soon.”
PayPal has the potential to spur the transfer to the early adopters phase, which would take in around 13.5% of the global population. As Woo noted, the company’s active user base totals just under 350 million people, compared to Bitcoin’s estimated 187 million.
