Bitcoin back to 19,000 - former strong support

Market picture

Bitcoin jumped 7.2% to $19,000 on Thursday, a high that the first cryptocurrency has yet to trade in the last two months. The intraday growth consisted of two impulses. The first one was due to stop-orders triggering in the morning low-liquid market. The second came in the middle of US trading when markets decided on their reaction to the inflation report.

We also note that the first cryptocurrency added in 12 out of 13 days of the new year. Investors hope the bear market will be over with the start of the new calendar year. On the technical analysis side, BTCUSD has turned to the upside, rewrote local highs, and consolidated above the downtrend line from where there were down reversals in August and November.

However, yesterday's breakthrough does not mean there will be a rapid rise from here. From June to October, the area around 19k was strong support, and now it might be strong resistance. 

According to Coinglass, the futures market was liquidated overnight for over $272 million in positions, over $189 million of which were short positions. The figure was the highest since November 10.

According to Glassnode, the bitcoin hash rate, smoothed by the 14-day moving average (14-DMA), reached a new high of 270.25 EH/s.

News background

El Salvador's parliament has passed a digital securities law allowing the country to raise funds with the world's first sovereign bonds on the bitcoin blockchain.

The Fed and banking regulators will continue to study the crypto industry and try to mitigate its risks, said Michelle Bowman, a member of the US Federal Reserve Board of Governors. She said the Fed doesn't want to discourage innovation and is thinking about the right way to regulate it.

Spot trading volume on centralised exchanges fell by 43% at once in December 2022 compared with November. On the futures market, the drop was almost 48%.

Avalanche, one of the top 20 cryptocurrencies, jumped 22% as altcoin developers partnered with Amazon to leverage Avalanche's ecosystem.

By the FxPro Analyst Team