Bitcoin set new all-time highs yet again on February 17 as upside continued in the latest phase of the largest cryptocurrency’s bull market.
Data from price trackers including CoinMarketCap and TradingView showed strong performance lasting for BTC/USD, which hit $51,300 on Wednesday.
$50,000 battle rages for BTC/USD
With volatility remaining noticeable, the battle to flip $50,000 to longer-term support was firmly on at press time, with Bitcoin fluctuating just above the key level.
Analyzing the current setup, popular trader Michaël van de Poppe said that slightly lower levels—a range bordered by $47,500 and $48,200—must hold in order to secure further upside.
“The first area I’m going to look at is this $44,000 zone,” he said about the consequences of a breakdown.
Upper targets meanwhile come in the form of $53,000 and $63,000, with both “very likely to be hit” should the bullish support scenario play out, he added.
Bitcoin’s latest surge, which obliterated what used to be major selling pressure close to $50,000, came on the back of news of fresh corporate buy-ins—a classic catalyst for price gains.
This time, familiar face MicroStrategy joined a newcomer in the form of German cannabis firm SynBiotic in adding BTC to its treasury. The former will issue $900 million in convertible notes, while the latter purchased an unspecified amount of Bitcoin, becoming the first publicly-traded company to use the cryptocurrency to hedge against euro inflation.
“Bitcoin is the exact antithesis of traditional currencies: its volume is limited to 21 million units. This limit is fixed and inviolable, which the cryptocurrency‘s decentralized organization and the blockchain‘s tamper-proof nature in turn guarantees,” SynBiotic CEO Lars Mueller said in a press release.
“For this reason, we have more long-term confidence in bitcoin than in euros or dollars, where a central institution, influenced by politicians, can expand the money supply immeasurably.”
No interest in FUD
Also exciting markets were reports among the mainstream press that banks en masse were looking into ways of offering cryptocurrency services, specifically with the aim of hooking younger customers in mind.
Bitcoin proponents thus had little time for bears big or small, including the Indian government, which is pressing ahead with major taxation and a legal ban on cryptocurrency.
“Bitcoin is at $50,000 and the government is about to flood the market with another $1.9 trillion,” Morgan Creek Digital co-founder Anthony Pompliano tweeted on Tuesday.
“I wonder what is going to happen next…”
Altcoins meanwhile were mainly flat as Bitcoin stole the limelight, with Ether coming off levels still near all-time highs.
Only Polkadot was bucking the sideways trend on Wednesday, rising 6% over the past 24 hours.
Van de Poppe suggested that a longer-term view was needed on ETH, with a potential bull scenario producing a “crazy” summer in which the largest altcoin reaches as much as $5,000.
