Bitcoin Friday climbed back above $ 95,000, recovering slightly from this week’s pullback that lost from the record level.
The price of the flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by 5% at $95,886.00, according to Metrik Coin, while ether jumped more than 7% to $3,555.82. The broader crypto market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 index, gained 5%.
Although bitcoin is widely viewed as a store of value and a digital alternative to gold, cryptocurrencies often trade alongside the stock market. On Wednesday, however, it decoupled from the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, which was lower by 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 also fell.
Coinbase up more than 2% as bitcoin lifted along with other crypto stocks. Robinhood – which offers crypto trading and is seen as a beneficiary of a more crypto-friendly environment under the incoming Trump administration, gained 4%. MicroStrategywhich trades as a proxy for bitcoin, advanced 7%.
Bitcoin has been hitting record highs since the November 5 election, reaching about 38% in that time. On Friday, it rose to $99,849.99 before testing the $90,000 support level this week.
“The bitcoin bull market has legs,” Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at Galaxy Digital, said in a report on Wednesday. “There will be corrections and hiccups, which is normal. There may even be some regulatory or law enforcement actions from the outgoing Biden administration that make the market jitter. But the combination of increasing institutional adoption, companies, and the potential of countries, the new US administration is becoming very pro-bitcoin, and solid position and network data all point to higher in the short and medium term.
Fairlead’s strategy Katie Stockton told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that, at the current level, bitcoin investors are in “unchartered territory in terms of where there is resistance – which, of course, is not there.” Meanwhile, support is around $74,000. Bitcoin hit $92,000 for the first time just two weeks ago, on November 13th.
“Bitcoin tends to move up the ladder to the bottom and up, which means it can see a very high rise and then consolidate,” he said. “People have to be … willing to give bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies in general, more room – because of the volatility there is and also because of the long-term potential.”
Bitcoin is up 124% for the year and is still expected to reach the $100,000 milestone before the year ends. Ether, the outperformer since the election, has been trailing bitcoin on a year-to-date basis with a gain of 55%.
