Major cryptocurrencies experienced a surge on Wednesday evening, surprising investors with a Valentine’s Day treat.
| Cryptocurrency | Gains +/- | Price (Recorded 9:30 p.m. EST) |
| Bitcoin BTC/USD | +5.37% | $52,144 |
| Ethereum ETH/USD | +6.41% | $2,795 |
| Dogecoin DOGE/USD | +7.91% | $0.087 |
What Happened: The price of Bitcoin surged to $52,000 on Wednesday, marking its highest value in 26 months and pushing its market capitalization over $1 trillion.
The largest and oldest cryptocurrency regained ground after Tuesday’s drop below $50,000 in response to hotter-than-expected inflation data.
Wednesday’s rally propelled BTC’s market value back over $1 trillion, marking a significant milestone not achieved since December 2021. The sentiment was supported by substantial inflows into the U.S.-listed spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds. BlackRock’s IBIT recorded nearly $500 million in net inflows on Tuesday, while the outflows from the incumbent Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) gradually slowed down.
Top Gainer (24 Hour)
| Cryptocurrency | Gains +/- | Price (Recorded 9:30 p.m. EDT) |
| Stacks STX/USD | +27.21% | $2.74 |
| Sei SEI/USD | +20.81% | $0.94 |
| Dymension DYM/USD | +14.95% | $8.12 |
The global cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1. trillion, showing a 2.71% increase in the past 24 hours.
Stocks rebounded on Wednesday as Wall Street regained some ground after the significant losses experienced in the previous session.
The S&P 500 surged by 0.96% to close at 5,000.62, and the Nasdaq Composite saw a 1.3% gain, settling at 15,859.15
The surge in the premarket trading session lifted crypto-related equities, with trading platform Coinbase and largest BTC holder Microstrategy both gaining 7% each. Crypto miners Iris Energy and CleanSpark experienced increases of 17% and 14% respectively, while Marathon Digital advanced by 12% and Riot Platforms added 9%.
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Analyst Notes: Cryptocurrency analyst Michael Van de Poppe reports Bitcoin’s breakthrough above $51,000, reaching a new yearly high.
“Probably we’ll see $54-58K pre-halving as a potential peak. #Ethereum remains strong and is the one to follow.”
Crypto analyst Kevin Svenson predicts a potential rally for Bitcoin towards a resistance level in the lead-up to the halving event. Svenson recently shared in a session that he anticipates the flagship cryptocurrency’s upward trajectory could propel it to $60,000 before the April halving event, which marks a reduction in miners’ rewards.
“So the area in between $57,500 and about $60,000, the trap liquidity target, that is the next major area of resistance in my opinion. And that is the area that I’m targeting as we’re moving into the halving. If we keep up this momentum, the momentum that we have right now, the trajectory that we’re on, it’s not really that crazy of an idea that we would come up and hit that target zone in between $57,500 and $60,000. It’s quite likely actually.”
According to on-chain analyst Ali Martinez, the quantity of Bitcoin held in identified cryptocurrency exchange wallets has decreased to the lowest level in six years, currently amounting to just 2.34 million BTC.
“This significant decrease suggests a growing trend of investors moving their #BTC off exchanges, potentially indicating a shift toward long-term holding.”
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