With buy pressure beginning to pick up in the space, the cryptoeconomy’s OG cryptocurrency is looking like it may be on the cusp of yet another bull market.
That dynamic comes after the bitcoin price broke through $5,500 USD and popped up to as high as $5,636 on April 22nd for a gain of more than $250 on the day. That $5,636 valuation marked bitcoin’s highest price yet in 2019.
The BTC price is now up nine percent on the week, up 40 percent on the month, and up over 56 percent over the last three months. That green streak has been more sustained than any upward movements bitcoin had last year — a reality that has many crypto analysts wondering if the crypto’s longest bear market to date is officially over.
For one, Wall Street crypto hopeful’s Fundstrat projected in their 2019 crypto outlook earlier this month that the bearish cycle that began in 2018 seemed to be waning. In their report, they noted:
“Bottom line: We see fewer reasons to question the recent recovery Bitcoin prices—the best quarter since 2017. While the key technical price hurdle is BTC closing above its 200D (currently ~$4,600 and falling by $15 per day), we see 2019 as positive risk/reward.”
Optimism is Growing
And, of course, the fabled “golden cross” has returned.
A bullish technical indicator, a golden cross occurs when a “relatively short-term moving average crosses above a long-term moving average,” per Investopedia. Regarding bitcoin’s current context, that means the coin’s 50-day moving price average has now crossed over its 200-day moving average.
To that end, it’s the first time bitcoin has achieved such a cross since the fall of 2015 and further fuel for bullish speculation.
Beyond the charts, optimism has generally been growing in the crypto ecosystem as of late on the heels of developments that have brought increased attention and activity:
- Crypto embraces from major enterprises like EY, Facebook, JP Morgan, and beyond that validate rather than directly challenge bitcoin.
- Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey getting more and more directly involved with the future of BTC.
- A recent surge in the transactions confirmed by the Bitcoin blockchain.
- Continued advancement of major crypto exchanges like Binance and Coinbase.
- MtGox users will apparently be getting some of their lost bitcoin back regardless of whether they filed claims applications.
- TokenSets’s bitcoin and ether indices, which trustlessly and automatically rebalance themselves, are now live.
BTC Market Cap to $1 Trillion?
After the April 22nd price movement, the market capitalization of bitcoin is hovering just under $100 million. Chris Burniske, a partner at venture firm Placeholder, thinks that mark could reach $1 trillion once another cryptoeconomy bull run hits its stride, that would place Bitcoin over $50k per BTC.
Looking at the top 10 cryptoassets at the end of each year makes me think #bitcoin (blue) gets to $1 trillion on its own in the next bull market. pic.twitter.com/75YaGesYxR
— Chris Burniske (@cburniske) April 20, 2019
Of course, that possibility is not necessarily unimaginable for crypto stakeholders who were around in 2017, when the bitcoin market cap ripped up to its last peak of $326.5 billion.
Therefore the next bull run would need to triple the coin’s last top cap in order to hit the $1 trillion milestone — a climb, to be sure, but one that’s not unfathomable if enterprises participate in the next bull market in larger numbers. Bakkt, ErisX, and Fidiely Digital Assets are platforms meant to facilitate precisely such participation.
So while it remains to be seen where the bitcoin price goes from here in the short-term, it’s clear that the crypto’s believers are as convinced as ever that the coin is primed for a bigger future. It’s had an impressive past, after all.
Two year returns:
S&P 500: 19.9%
Gold: 1.3%
Oil: 31%
Bitcoin: 457%The non-correlated, asymmetric nature of Bitcoin makes it imperative that every portfolio include some exposure to the digital currency. #GetOffZero
— Pomp ???? (@APompliano) April 23, 2019
And while the past isn’t indicative of future performance, the trends of digitization and decentralization combined with bitcoin’s first-mover advantages suggest the crypto’s fabled rise toward the daylight of the mainstream is far from over yet.