The short-squeeze rally has lasted for about a month as bitcoin held $30,000 support and broke out of a consolidation phase above $42,000. BTC is up about 46% over the past 30 days despite recent signs of upside exhaustion.
Other major cryptocurrencies were also rallying on Monday morning, with ethereum (ETH-USD) up 2% to trade at $3,328 and Cardano (ADA-USD) 7% higher to reach $2.04. The broader cryptocurrency market was up 1.7% over the 24 hours to Monday morning to reach a market cap of $2.14tn (£1.57tn), according to data provider CoinMarketCap.
The rally of Bitcoin coincided with the launch of PayPal’s cryptocurrency products in the UK. PayPal (PYPL) said on Monday it would begin letting UK customers buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum from this week. It has been offering the service to its US customers since last October.
According to Jose Fernandez da Ponte which is the vice president and general manager for blockchain, crypto and digital currencies at PayPal, the company wanted to “meaningfully contribute to shaping the role digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce.”
Daily trading volume remains relatively flat and has continued to decline from days prior, though price action remains above a key indicator used to gauge the momentum of a given trend.
“The market continues to hover over the 200-day moving average with bulls still in play,” Toby Chapple, head of trading at digital asset firm Zerocap, told CoinDesk via Telegram. “Relative outperformance by cardano, ether, polkadot, uniswap and others have provided a supporting bid for BTCUSD in recent days.”
Bitocoin is flashing signs of medium-term pricing in the form of long interest from investors. Though the futures pricing is certainly not what it was compared to earlier this year.
The cryptocurrency’s rally from July lows has been backed by strong hands, according to data analytics firm IntoTheBlock.
A minor correction, however, cannot be ruled out as short-term technical indicators are pointing to overbought conditions. That may weigh heavily on alternative cryptocurrencies like solana and cardano which have outperformed bitcoin in recent days.
Bitcoin hit an all-time high over $64,863 in April but sold off heavily in June and July, even dipping below $30,000. One of the major reasons was renewed regulatory scrutiny from Chinese authorities which has forced bitcoin mining operations to shut down and move elsewhere.
But since mid-July, bitcoin has been on a steady rise.
In the last few days, two key announcements have been positive for the cryptocurrency space. Last week, Coinbase said it would buy $500 million in crypto on its balance sheet and allocate 10% of profits into a crypto assets portfolio.
Despite the recent rally, cryptocurrencies remain off the all-time highs reached earlier in the year. Bitcoin hit a record $64,863 before crashing to a low of less than half that in late July. The initial rally was spurred by increased institutional adoption and a revival of interest among retail investors.
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