Another day, another all-time high for Bitcoin as the largest cryptocurrency hits $38,500 on January 7.
Data from price trackers including CoinMarketCap and TradingView confirmed BTC/USD making consistent new records during Thursday trading.
Wednesday saw momentum build as events in the U.S. accompanied a fresh surge in demand across cryptocurrency. Bitcoin’s gains stood at 11.5% on the day, with weekly returns topping $11,500.
Bitcoin lines up to challenge $40,000
With anticipation building around Bitcoin hitting $40,000 in the near future, analysts are nonetheless cautious, as the landmark level could trigger psychologically-induced selling pressure.
“The next correction is absolutely going to be painful for all the #FOMO buyers,” popular trader Michaël van de Poppe argued.
As Modern Consensus reported, Van de Poppe believes that the market composition has changed this week as Bitcoin rises, with more and more inexperienced and speculative money coming in hoping to seal quick profits.
Given the vertical nature of the Bitcoin charts on higher timeframes, it becomes impossible to claim that the pace of the bull run will remain unabated for much longer, he has said.
Others were as bullish as ever on the day, with quant analyst PlanB noting that Bitcoin was following his stock-to-flow (S2F) price forecasting models “like clockwork.” He uploaded the latest rendition of one of the models, showing BTC/USD behaving exactly as during bull markets in previous halving cycles.
“…S2F and S2FX models are both on track,” he confirmed on Twitter.
“Big question is where does bitcoin find it’s new equilibrium, $100K or $288K? We will know better by Dec 2021.”
XRP joins top altcoin movers in 2021
Away from Bitcoin, meanwhile, a surprise move from XRP was the talking point among market participants on the day.
In the wake of a legal battle between major stakeholder Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), XRP fell rapidly, reversing a prior bullish phase to hit lows of under $0.18. This week, the embattled altcoin’s fortunes reversed, with XRP/USD adding 55% on Thursday alone.
Curiously, this came despite no tangible progress being made in the Ripple lawsuit.
“Thus far the world has heard the SEC’s version of reality,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse stated in late December.
“The legal process will unfold from here and the world will have a much more robust and complete picture of the facts soon.”
XRP thus became the tenth most lucrative bet over the past seven days among cryptocurrencies, as other altcoins also began to rise conspicuously. Leading the pack was Stellar with 180% weekly gains, followed by Cardano, FTX Token, and Synthetix.
Ether, the largest altcoin by market cap, added 7.5% on the day to crack $1,225, placing it within $200 of historical all-time highs.
As Modern Consensus noted, price targets for ETH/BTC now extend as high as $2,600 based on Fibonacci sequences.
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December 24, 2020 -
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