On February 12, Bitcoin (BTC) price hit a new all-time high of $ 48,985 before returning to the $ 46,000 level.
A quick look at the 4-hour chart shows cryptocurrency trading at its very highest in what appears to be a brief period of consolidation, but BTC maintains its bullish momentum through a pattern of higher highs and higher lows.
If BTC can maintain its current pace and structure, it could potentially switch to the $ 50,000 level before the end of the weekend.
BTC / USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
A report published by analysts at Decentrader shows that as Bitcoin’s liquidity supply decreases, the demand for the top cryptocurrency has increased, as the number of BTCs that have not moved in the chain for an extended period also increases.
Bitcoin liquid supply. Source: Glassnode
As can be seen from the graph above, BTC currently has a liquid supply of around four million coins. The number has steadily declined since June 2020 as whales and institutional investors increase their exposure to this emerging asset class.
Another proof of the growth of big money gamblers is the surge in wallets with more than 1000 BTC.
Wallets with at least 1000 BTC versus the BTC price. Source: Decentrader
As the number of large wallets increases, the number of smaller wallets has either remained unchanged or decreased, indicating that “bigger players are picking up Bitcoin from smaller players”.
PayPal delves deeper into cryptocurrency
More positive news for the cryptocurrency sector came when PayPal announced that it was planning to expand its crypto services to UK residents.
This is the first time that users outside of the US can buy crypto through the platform, which is slated to be available on the PayPal and Venmo apps by the end of the second quarter of 2021.
To keep up with PayPal and the Cash app, Apple Pay has announced a new partnership with BitPay that will allow Apple Wallet users to use their BitPay card to make purchases.
It has also emerged that Grayscale Investments could soon bring a new level of exposure to decentralized finance, as a newly filed corporate registry in the state of Delaware shows the asset manager is considering Yearn Finance as a potential future offering.
Choppy trading sets the tone in traditional markets
Traditional markets came under early pressure on Friday after it was announced on February 11 that federal regulators were looking in Robinhood and Reddit for signs of market manipulation related to recent wild movements in stocks like GameStop and AMC.
After the early downturn, all three main indices climbed higher and ended the day on a positive note. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ ended the session at record levels, up 0.47% and 0.50%, respectively. The Dow also managed to gain a positive 0.09%.
The broader cryptocurrency market continued on its uptrend as several projects saw double-digit gains and new highs.
Daily market performance in cryptocurrencies. Source: Coin360
Ether (ETH) ventured deeper into uncharted territory on Friday by setting and setting a new all-time high of $ 1,863, while Polkadot (DOT) was the top 10 best performing coin, up 21% overnight new high recorded at 29.52.
Other notable performers include the pure proof-of-stake protocol Algorand (ALGO), which rose 38% on a 2021 high of $ 1.84, and Tezos (XTZ), which saw the price hit a new record high of $ 5 .41 USD rose 23%.
The market cap for cryptocurrencies is now $ 1.48 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 60.4%.
