So good, in fact, that total market capitalization for all cryptocurrencies today increased by $10 billion. It’s grown by $26 billion since last week, with Bitcoin—the largest cryptocurrency by market cap—gaining 8% to its price in that time.
Bitcoin is now trading above $11,500 per coin for the first time since August. It’s up nearly 2% on the day, and a whopping 40% year to date, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
While the coin kept with tradition and suffered throughout September, the bears could not undo the bullish market sentiment that Bitcoin has enjoyed since March (following the coronavirus-induced market panic that sent prices across global markets plummeting).
Since March, Bitcoin has remained in one of the most robust bullish trading channels in its short history. If this trend continues, Bitcoin could soon touch new all-time highs by mid-2021—though that’s with all other things remaining equal.
The BTC-USD trading pair over the years. Image: TradingView
Just about anything could send this very young, volatile market in a different direction, including the results of the US presidential election in November. For example, just look at what the news of Jack Dorsey’s Square sinking $50 million into Bitcoin last week has done for the asset now.
And there’s plenty of reason to be cautious. A recent study by behavior analytics platform Santiment shows that trading groups may be looking for the right time to short Bitcoin at the moment, with searches for “short” hitting a two-month high on “crypto discourse channels.”
The keyword #short has hit a 2-month high on #crypto discourse channels, as the crowd anticipates a local top after yesterday's peak at ~$11.44k. Comparing #long vs. #short mentions here has historically been a great identifier of market polarization. https://t.co/ZB2nodcNrmpic.twitter.com/zgFCxsDNK3
