Bitcoin was in recovery mode earlier today as the index rose above $58k level to get to around weekly highs. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was under pressure from the bears for most of the last week but is now looking towards the $60k resistance. Altcoins also rose earlier today but the overall performance was quite mixed. More on that later on.
In other news, amid the global spread of the new Omicron variant of the Coronavirus disease, markets took a big tumble before making some recovery on Monday. However, in the midst, a digital currency project sharing the new variant’s name Omicron has risen more than 1,000% in the last two days, possibly because of meme inventors and Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) dynamics. What is interesting is that the token Omicron (OMIC) was launched less than a month ago and has reaped big benefits as the name's relevance was spotted. The token rose from around $65 on Saturday to as high as $680 at one point earlier today before dipping back below $400 close to press time.
Also, big US investor Microstrategy has purchased a massive 7,002 BTC during the recent price decrease. Michael Saylor, the CEO of the company announced this move on Twitter. More on that later on.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has officially announced that he will be stepping down from his role as the CEO of the social media giant. The billionaire CEO and co-founder of the popular microblogging website co-founded it back in 2006 by Dorsey and two other co-founders. There are many predictions floating around the internet on what Dorsey will like to do after stepping down as CEO. Some believe that he will dedicate his efforts towards the crypto space through his Square startup, which is a financial services company. Dorsey is a well-known pro-Bitcoin CEO and it appears as if he will pursue this different line of work in the near future.
The Bitcoin transaction fees are down 50% from highs recorded back in April this year. The cryptocurrency network’s average fees are now less than $2 on average despite rising to $4.40 back 7 months ago. The cryptocurrency, however, is faring way better than Ethereum and many other digital currencies whose fees keep on rising with time with the latter trying hard but not able to control them till now.
Binance has resumed Dogecoin withdrawals after a few issues forced it to halt them for as much as 17 days. The cryptocurrency exchange has a history of having issues especially when wallets undergo planned upgrades but according to them, the transactions have resumed now.
Bitcoin Rises Above $58k
Bitcoin rose strongly earlier today to above $58k right before press time. The cryptocurrency, however, is still facing big hurdles in the immediate future and it needs to overcome them to resume the long-term bull run.
The last 24 hours started with the cryptocurrency at around $53.5k. It immediately began to rise from the very start. It went above $57k around midnight and has largely stayed there ever since. At 6 PM in the evening, Bitcoin began to rise once again and is now hovering above $58k.
Going forward, the next obvious price resistance going forward is the $60k level. The cryptocurrency has stayed below for the large part of the last 2 weeks despite several attempts to overcome it. Now, this is the latest move to do it. Long-term stats are still very strong for the cryptocurrency but the bulls have to overcome $60k to have any chance of resumption of the bull run.
The total market capitalization of Bitcoin was around $1.109 trillion at press time and its share of the proceedings were 42.72%.
Altcoins Post Gains
Other cryptocurrencies aka altcoins posted recoveries of their own at the start of the day. Ethereum (ETH, 8%), Solana (SOL, 11.5%), Cardano (ADA, 10%), Polkadot (DOT, 10%), Dogecoin (DOGE, 10%), Avalanche (AVAX, 11%), Shiba Inu (SHIBA, 16%), Terra (LUNA, 8%), Litecoin (LTC, 10%) and Polygon (MATIC, 12%) all posted big gains.
In Other News…..
Microstrategy Purchase $414 million of more Bitcoin
Michael Saylor, the CEO of Microstrategy has announced that he has bought 7,002 more Bitcoin at an average price of $59k which comes out to be a massive $414 million. What is interesting is that Saylor purchased these coins more than a week ago when the index was around $59k. After that, BTC has largely trended downwards, apart from the sudden appreciation we saw earlier today.
Microstrategy is now one of the biggest holders of BTC around with a total hoardings of 121,044 BTC or more than $7 billion in Bitcoin. The company’s average price is around $29,400 and thus it seems like it is growing nicely overall. The company is also looking to sell stocks to buy more Bitcoin which is risky but it is being compared to a kind of stock buyback that will keep increasing the worth of the leftover shares especially as Bitcoin reaches new highs in the near future.