Bitcoin Reaches for Fresh 2019 Highs

Bitcoin entered a fifth consecutive day of gains in early trading on Wednesday, nearing its 2019 high of $13,887.

The dramatic recent price surge saw bitcoin rally by $500 in under 10 minutes on Monday.

Altcoins Etherium and Litecoin were little changed, with the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap taking the spotlight.

According to CoinMarketCap, bitcoin currently represents 64% of the cryptocurrency market, the highest level since April of 2017.

Mainstream Endorsements

Bitcoin’s price has been boosted by cryptocurrency related news from corporate giants including JP Morgan (JPM) and Facebook (FB).

A report released in June by JP Morgan strategists suggested that the importance of the bitcoin futures market has been significantly understated.

Another bullish driver has been news that Facebook’s (FB) Libra cryptocurrency is expected to launch in the first half of 2020.

ECB Comments

Elsewhere, in a Twitter Q&A session (#AskECB) on July 9th, the European Central Bank adopted their usual disparaging stance.

After being asked if the bank would add bitcoin to its reserves, officials confirmed that they had no such plans and stated;

“Bitcoin is not a currency, it rather is an asset and it is very volatile”

Technical Outlook

After dipping as low as $9,628 on July 2nd, bitcoin bears came out of the woods. Economist Nouriel Roubini went as far as tweeting;

“Still a long way to less than zero as its true value is negative not zero given its toxic externalities! It will get to zero in due time.”

However, bullish analysts suggest that the bounce back from the July 2nd lows and subsequent rally above $13,000 has opened the door to a retest of the 2019 high near $14,000.

The Bottom Line

The devastating crypto bear market of 2018 saw bitcoin lose 70% of its value. However, it has now quadrupled in value since the start of the year. A rally above $14,000 will embolden the bulls and bring the December 2017 all-time high of $19,783 back into view.