Bitcoin Price Breaks $16,000 in Sudden Burst Upwards

The price of Bitcoin has broken the $16,000 mark, after a quick price surge. The current price of Bitcoin is now $16,141, but it is changing rapidly.

The price rise has been accompanied by a surge of volume. According to Messari, Bitcoin's trading volumes rose from $28 million to $176 million in the last two hours.

Bitcoin's price is now up 4% in the last 24 hours and 11% in the last week. It is leading the market, with most coins in the top ten either slightly in the green, or in the red.

"Bitcoin passes $16k yet not a lot of short liquidations in the derivatives and futures market. Many on-chain indicators point toward an organic rally. Last week, many miners and whales sold / took profit as well. Strong demand, strong high time frame momentum," tweeted crypto analyst Joseph Young.

"Bitcoin hadn't hit this range since late 2017 and early 2018, when it reached highs of $20,000. In fact, the last date Bitcoin was at this specific price was on January 8," he added.

According to Datamish, $13.8 million of short positions were liqudiated in the last 24 hours on Bitcoin futures exchange BitMEX. Just $6 million in long positions have been liquidated in the same timeframe.

The price surge has boosted Bitcoin's market cap, which is now at $297 billion. This is up 200% from a low of $96 billion in March.

Bitcoin's dominance has risen too, up to 64%. It had recently dropped as low as 57%, showing a positive turnaround.

Not only has Bitcoin continued its run of days above $10,000—which is now well over 100 days—but it has entered territory is has rarely spent much time in. As investor Alistair Milne pointed out, "Bitcoin has been above $16,000 for less than two weeks in its entire existence ..."

Now we're about to find out if it can hold above the mark for any longer.