Bitcoin (BTC) tackled pivotal $52,000 resistance overnight on March 9 to come within 6% of historical all-time highs.
BTC price hits 2-week highs
Data from Cointelegraph Markets and Tradingview showed BTC/USD hitting local highs of $54,500 on Tuesday.
The latest attempt to break out of its sideways trading corridor, the move was still consolidating at the time of writing. Amid heavy volatility, a retracement on the day targeted $53,500 — still above crucial resistance.
As Cointelegraph reported, analysts were eyeing $52,000 as a line in the sand for securing the next stage of the Bitcoin bull run.
While the weekend produced healthy upside, Bitcoin had still to cement even $50,000 as strong support as the week’s trading began.
On the back of 24-hour gains topping 8%, however, the picture on Tuesday was fast improving, after evidence showed that $47,000 had become conspicuously strong support.
“Bitcoin jumps >$54k aided by more signs of institutional interest in the largest cryptocurrency,” markets commentator and contributor to German news daily Die Welt, Holger Zschaepitz, summarized to Twitter followers.
“Institutional interest sets the latest bull run apart from 2017's retail-driven surge, Goldman says. Much of the institutional demand has been driven by fears around asset devaluation.”
Zschaepitz was referencing findings from Goldman Sachs, which among other things also revealed that 40% of its own clients already have exposure to cryptocurrencies.
Analyst on $70,000 Bitcoin: "Destiny awaits"
The institutional picture became even more bullish on Monday after one of Norway’s richest people launched a Bitcoin-focused spin-off firm using BTC as its sole treasury asset.
“Bitcoin can be verified, divided, re-assembled, stored, and transported at virtually no cost. It’s the perfect scarce digital asset. By design,” Kjell Inge Røkke wrote in a widely-circulated shareholder letter.
“All that’s required to keep the network running, is allocating the cheapest electricity in the world. Electricity secures the network. No trusted parties or people with guns are needed. I call that progress.”
Elsewhere, hodlers were watching a bullish setup unfold in Bitcoin’s daily moving average convergence/ divergence (MACD) indicator, which on Monday was primed to repeat behavior which previously resulted in February’s march to $58,300 record highs.
“Destiny awaits,” Cointelegraph Markets analyst filbfilb added in an update to Telegram channel subscribers, highlighting a target area of $70,000 and higher using Fibonacci levels.