all-time high

Bitcoin breaks $41K as gold price reaches new all-time high

Bitcoin price is surging in lockstep with gold as the precious metal hits a new historic high, suggesting investors are preparing for stock market turmoil.

The price of gold has broken through a new all-time high, surpassing the significant level of $2,100 during the Asian session on Monday, Dec. Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) has also surged above $41,000 for the first time in 19 months.

*BTC/USD (blue) vs. gold price (orange) Source: Tradingview*

Bitcoin price breaks $40K…and $41K

Bitcoin has made a triumphant return to the $40,000 threshold, a figure unseen since the heights of April 2022.

Wild tailwinds for bitcoin:
✅ New ATH in gold
✅ to abolish central bank
✅ Worst bond crash in 250yrs
✅ BTC ETF on the cusp (?)
✅ Real estate trembling
✅ Consumer Tech languishing
✅ Banks shaking
✅ Fed getting ready to pump
✅ Halving in April
✅ Bitcoin L2 is here

— Tuur Demeester (@TuurDemeester) December 4, 2023

What’s more, Bitcoin has now risen over 140% since the beginning of the year.

Insights from Matrixport’s research head, Markus Thielen, suggest an even brighter future. With historical trends of post-bear market bull cycles and upcoming Bitcoin halving events as a backdrop, projections place Bitcoin at over $60,000 by April next year and as high as $125,000 by the end of 2024.

Crypto Fear and Greed Index hits highest level since Bitcoin’s all-time high

Sentiment toward the crypto market is the most positive its been since around the time Bitcoin hit its all-time high almost 16 months ago.

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index has hit its highest index score this year, reaching levels not seen since Bitcoin (BTC) posted its all-time high in November 2021.

A March 20 update of the Index showed a score of 68, placing it firmly within the “Greed” territory.

*The Index’s score of 66 as shown on March 20. Source: alternative.me*

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index aims to numerically present the current “emotions and sentiments” towards Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market, with the highest score being 100.

The last time the index recorded a score above 66 was on Nov. 16, 2021, just days after Bitcoin’s all-time high of over $69,000 was recorded on Nov. 10, 2021, according to Coingecko.

*All time chart of the Index, Nov. 16, 2021, was the last time it recorded a score above 60. Source: alternative.me*

Sentiment around BTC and crypto has been bullish since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the resulting fallout in the traditional financial system.

Over the past seven days, Bitcoin has recorded gains of around 27.8% as per Coingecko data, and hit $28,000 for the first time since June 2022.

Crypto financial services Matrixport’s head of research Markus Thielen suggested in a March 20 analysis that there is more upside on the cards for BTC, as the “liquidity story continues to be in Bitcoin’s favor.”

The analyst has adjusted his near-term price target to $36,000 by June 2023, while he has tipped a year-end target of $45,000.

*Matrixport head of research Markus Thielen has predicted Bitcoin could be on the way to $36,000 in the next few months. Source:* *Matrixport*

Meanwhile, Charles Edwards, founder and CEO of investment firm Capriole, predicted an even more ambitious price target of $100,000 for BTC.

In a March 14 tweet, Edwards, called BTC price action in 2023 a “Textbook perfect Bitcoin ‘Bump & Run Reversal”, and based on his interpretation of the data, he thinks “The target is over $100,000.”

However, he did note that, “chart patterns do fail, don’t use this as a trading / investment plan. Manage your risks!”

Ryan Selkis, founder and CEO of crypto analytics firm Messari shared a similar “rough” prediction in a March 16 post, explaining why he thought over the next twelve months it was possible for BTC to hit $100,000.

According to Selkis, a combination of bank failures and changes to federal monetary polices will see more outside investment into crypto.

My rough prediction for the next twelve months:

1. More bank failures in the next couple of weeks.
2. Fed cuts / QE is back!
3. BTC climbs, sustained moderate inflation.
4. “Outside Money” / “Sound Money” -> $100k / BTC.
5. Institutions buy faster than Feds can shut down.

Game.

— Ryan Selkis (@twobitidiot) March 17, 2023

“But the key is threading the needle so institutions can buy it and defend it alongside of us. Best case scenario right now,” Selkis said.

“This is an optimistic bet on the future, as BTC is treated as a life raft and peaceful exit option,” he added.

Bitcoin has been ranked by investment firm Goldman Sachs as the top performing asset this year, gaining 51% in year-to-date absolute returns.

Goldman Sachs has revealed Bitcoin has outpaced many traditional investment assets. Source: Goldman Sachs

In a March 17 note, the asset manager revealed Bitcoin’s total returns YTD has outpaced the likes of information technology, gold, the NASDAQ 100 and the S&P 500, among others.

Bitcoin price hits $25K in new 2023 high

Despite macroeconomic headwinds and regulatory crackdowns on crypto, Bitcoin is made a new high for 2023.

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has reached a new 2023 high of $25,000. The milestone comes after a surge in Bitcoin’s price over much of January.

The last time Bitcoin’s price was around $25,000 was near mid-June 2022 on its way down to between $19,000 and $21,000, where it had hovered for several months, according to data from CoinGecko.

*The price of BTC has increased double digits over the last 24 hours to reach the $25,000 milestone.*

The price of BTC however took a big dip in November following the FTX crisis, which saw it drop to a 2022 low of $15,742 on Nov. 10. 2022.

The price began to surge in early January, when the price of BTC increased over 14 consecutive days between Jan. 4-17.

That daily green candle streak was its second longest in the cryptocurrency’s 14-year history — having fallen one day short of its 15-day record in November 2013.

While BTC has had an impressive start to 2023, it is still down 63% from its all time-high (ATH) of $69,044, which was reached on Nov. 10, 2021.

Some economists such as Lyn Alden however believe that BTC’s current price surge may be relatively short-lived. The Bitcoin bull believes actions from the U.S. Federal Reserve will likely impose “considerable danger ahead” for BTC in the second half of 2023.

Meanwhile, Galaxy Digital Holdings CEO Mike Novogratz is more bullish over the short term.

Speaking at a Bank of America conference on Feb. 15, Novogratz reportedly said there’s a chance BTC could hit $30,000 by the end of March.

Bitcoin to make new all-time-highs within 24 months: Coinshares CSO

Demirors however said she certainly expects “more pain ahead” for tech stocks and crypto as we head closer to recession.

Bitcoin (BTC) may have further to fall, but CoinShares chief strategy officer Meltem Demirors believes the top cryptocurrency will reach new all-time highs within the next 24 months.

Speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Monday, Demirors noted that Bitcoin has always been a “cyclical asset” with drawdowns from peak to trough at 80 to 90% historically.

With Bitcoin currently sitting at about 65% down from its all-time highs in November 2021, Demirors believes “there is still room for some downward correction.”

However, Demirors noted there has been strong support around $20,000 and that she did not expect Bitcoin to fall below $14,000. She predicted the pain would be a distant memory by 2024, saying:

“In the next 24 months, we will see new all-time highs in Bitcoin.”

Bitcoin is currently priced at $19,401, down 2% in 24 hours and down 72% from its all-time high.

A reversal may be some time off, however, given Demirors can see “no near upside catalysts” — which could signal more pain in store for weaker crypto projects.

“We obviously had a lot of liquidations, a lot of insolvencies that had a massive impact on the market. […] We’re talking about $10, $20, $30 billion of capital that has basically evaporated overnight:”

“[We] certainly expect more pain ahead for tech stocks, growth, and also crypto.”

Demiror said she expected a large number of crypto assets to be wiped out during the bear market, similar to what has been seen in tech stocks.

“There’s a very long, long tail of crypto assets that I think will go to zero, that doesn’t really have any long-term prospect as we’ve seen with so many tech stocks as well.”

Louis Schoeman, managing director at broker comparison site Forex Suggest, has a similar view. In a recent 9News report, he predicted that the current crypto downturn could kill off as much as 90 percent of all crypto projects.

“This is a cleansing process,” Schoeman said, adding that only the strongest crypto projects will survive this bear market.

“But it also serves as a massive opportunity for many no-coiners to enter the crypto market for the first time. Fortune favors the brave in crypto right now.”

Last month, billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban said he doesn’t expect the crypto bear market to be over until there’s a better focus on applications with business-focused utility.

Cuban also believes mergers between different protocols and blockchains will eventually see the crypto industry consolidate, as “that’s what happens in every industry.”

72 of the top 100 coins have fallen 90% or more: Here are the holdouts

The vast majority of cryptocurrencies have dipped more than 90% from their all-time highs, but a core group has managed to stay ahead of the pack.

According to price data from CoinGecko compiled by CoinGoLive, the current bear market has seen a whopping 72 out of the top 100 tokens fall more than 90% from their all-time highs.

The larger-cap coins are faring better than most. Among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, nine have dipped less than 90% during the current market downturn. Bitcoin (BTC), the largest crypto, is down 70.3% from its November 2021 high of $69,000. In second place is Ether (ETH), which is down 78% from its high of $4,878.

Others in the top 10 include Binance’s BNB, Cardano’s ADA, Solana’s SOL and Polkadot’s DOT, which are down between 68% and 88%. The list excludes the stablecoins Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC) and Binance USD (BUSD). XRP is the exception, falling 90.56% from its all-time high.

The average fall from ATH for these top 10 coins is 79%. Among the top 20 coins, the average fall from the all-time high is 81.1%.

Exchange tokens appear to be doing better than many other sectors, with a 68.3% average fall from their ATHs.

The best performer there is Unus Sed Leo (LEO), which has only fallen 38.87% and which Cointelegraph reported saw “aggressive buying at lower levels” on June 13. LEO is the Ethereum-based utility token for the Bitfinex exchange and trading platforms managed by iFinex and is used to reduce fees for traders.

The CoinFLEX exchange’s native FLEX token is the 83rd-largest crypto. It also appears relatively immune to the devastating drawback, down just 38.6% from its ATH. FLEX is used to pay for transactions and reduce trading fees on the trading platform. The project touts its token-burning mechanism as a reason for its price resilience.

The utility token for the KuCoin trading platform, KuCoin Token (KCS), has seen a 61.43% drawdown from its ATH. KCS is an ERC-20 token used to reduce fees on the exchange and is the native token for KuChain, a blockchain developed by the exchange.

However, KCS could see a further dip to more than 60% below its ATH if Cointelegraph’s June 12 predictions prove correct.

Many cryptocurrencies have experienced a large portion of their losses within the past week as the total crypto market cap dropped 24%, from $1.3 trillion to $996 billion. In that time, BTC also fell about 35% from $30,500 to a low of $20,216 on June 15.

BTC is currently trading at $20,486 after the Federal Reserve announced a 75-basis-point hike in interest rates to try to combat inflation.

As an aside, stablecoins haven’t been immune to falls either, despite theoretically being stable. Since 2018, many have wobbled by 10% to 30% at various points, including USDT, USDC, BUSD, Dai, FRAX, Pax Dollar (USDP), Pax Gold (PAXG), Compound Dai (CDAI) and Tether Gold (XAUT). TrueUSD (TUSD) recorded a 38.4% deviation from its peg in 2018.