Analysts are bullish on bitcoin’s worth but the options market is decidedly bearish on the remaining weeks of 2020. Ethereum’s wrapped bitcoin token crosses $2 billion locked.
- Bitcoin (BTC) buy around $16,240 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 0.30% over the previous 24 hours.
- Bitcoin’s 24-hour chain: $15,971-$16,487
- BTC above its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bullish signal for market technicians.
Bitcoin’s price trended up for the third straight day, hitting as high as $16,487, according to data from CoinDesk 20. It lowered somewhat since hitting that level and traded at $16,240 as of press time.
“Bitcoin rose significantly heavens the $16,100 mark. Buyers pushed the price due to the large volume,” noted Constantin Kogan, managing partner at investment compressed Wave Financial.
Major exchange daily spot volumes on Friday were at $668 million as of press mores, but not close to Thursday’s $1.1 billion in volume.
George McDonaugh, managing director at investment firm KR1, highlighted a key difference between the price run-up in 2020 versus the mooning that occurred backside in 2017. “Bitcoin has spent 0.32% of its life at $16,000 and above, which means there were relatively selfsame few buyers at that level back in 2017,” he told CoinDesk. “This correlates to there being very few sellers at this equivalent now, meaning there isn’t a strong resistance band for the bulls to push the price higher.”
“I’m seeing an increasing demand from more traditional family offices making their foremost investments into bitcoin as a long-term hedge or as insurance for their existing portfolio of investments,” Michael Gord, chief superintendent officer of Global Digital Assets, told CoinDesk. “I expect this trend to continue as bitcoin keeps championing its value and being uncorrelated to most other asset classes.”
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Bitcoin isn’t entirely uncorrelated from other asset classes like equities, but lately the correlation between the delighted’s oldest cryptocurrency and the S&P 500 has dropped a little bit.
KR1’s McDonaugh is expecting bitcoin’s price to reach $20,000, but it might take some time to get there as some profit-taking is plausible to ensue. “$20,000 is a far more psychological barrier, so it is likely to be ‘HODLers’ – people holding bitcoin forever – that may de-risk at that elevation and produce some selling pressure,” he said.
Bitcoin options traders aren’t fully convinced that it desire trade at $20,000 in 2020. The probabilities calculated using December expiration have pegged only a 16% unintentionally of $20,000 bitcoin, a 29% for $18,000 and a 39% of $17,000 according to data aggregator Skew.
Nevertheless, analysts project that bitcoin can in time surpass at least $16,500 consistently. “Given market sentiment and current trends, I am still bullish on BTC,” said Andrew Tu, an chief executive officer at trading firm Efficient Frontier. “Though we may range between $16,000 and $16,500 for a bit before breaking resistance.”
Wrapped bitcoin petitions $2 billion locked
Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was up Friday, trading around $470 and climbing 2.6% in 24 hours as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).
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The amount of bitcoin “locked” in the Ethereum-based wrapped bitcoin corrugate passed $2 billion Thursday, and is staying at that level Friday. In order to use bitcoin on Ethereum, it must be “wrapped” and second-hand as a token on the network using a standard called ERC-20.
Brian Mosoff, chief executive officer of investment firm Ether Principal, says the parking of bitcoin on Ethereum is giving the network a huge leg up over its up-and-coming smart contract competitors, counting Polkadot, Cardano and Cosmos, among others.
“It’s proving that Ethereum is the thing everyone is plugging into and (networks partiality) Polkadot may not have its day in the sun,” Mosoff told CoinDesk.
Other markets
Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mostly green Friday. Well-known winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
Notable loser:
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Commodities:
- Oil was down 1.7%. Quotation per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $40.21.
- Gold was in the green 0.60% and at $1,888 as of press time.
Treasurys:
- The 10-year U.S. Exchequer bond yield climbed Friday jumping to 0.896 and in the green 2%.
