Bitcoin smashes through $8,000 ahead of halving

Bitcoin (BTC) has passed the $8,000 threshold after gaining four percent since yesterday. The cryptocurrency is now hovering around $8,070 as the bulls and the bears battle it out over this price point. This is the first time Bitcoin has touched $8,000 since Black Thursday.

Despite suffering one of the worst single-day losses ever and falling to as a low as $4,600 in mid-March after a dramatic market sell-off, Bitcoin has been on the uptrend ever since. From trough to peak, Bitcoin has now gained almost 74% in just over six weeks, and is now in the green compared to the start of the year.

Bitcoin began the year at just $7,200 and is now up 11% so far, making it one of the few financial instruments that has managed to rack up gains during what can only be described as a tumultuous 2020.

During this time, huge influxes of money have gone towards stablecoin Tether, which has printed $1 billion this month, and $2.7 billion in total since the start of the year. It is unclear if this has helped keep Bitcoin's price afloat. Strangely, other stablecoins have seen much less demand.

Despite this recent growth, Bitcoin has largely been losing ground to altcoins this April and has seen its market dominance slide as a result. Starting the month with a market dominance of 65%, this has since fallen to 63.8% as major altcoins like Ethereum (ETH), Tezos (XTZ), and Chainlink (LINK) rack up strong gains against the number one cryptocurrency. Ethereum is now up 25.3% against Bitcoin in the last 30 days, whereas XTZ and LINK are up 39-40% apiece against BTC.

Historically, Bitcoin has demonstrated bullish momentum just prior to and shortly after a halving event—which sees the block rewards distributed to miners cut by half roughly every four years. With two weeks to go, the anticipation is heating up.