Bitcoin price rises above $43,000 after weeks of blues
Bitcoin (BTC-USD) approached new highs on Monday, climbing back above the key $40,000 (£29,589) threshold for the first time in almost a month.
The cryptocurrency, which has been fluctuating over the last few weeks, jumped to a high of $43,701 before retreating slightly. It was over 5.2% higher on the day at $43,650 on Monday afternoon in London.
Bitcoin — the largest cryptocurrency by market cap — has been attempting to overcome downward hurdles amid regulation and a global financial squeeze.
The move came amid a broader recovery in the crypto market as the US reported better than expected jobs data on Friday.
US employers added more jobs than expected last month, shrugging off a surge in COVID infections and business closures.
Non-farm payrolls rose by 467,000 in January after an upwardly revised 510,000 in December, according to the US labour department's latest jobs report on Friday. The unemployment rate rose to 4% from 3.9% the previous month.
Altcoins, such as ethereum (ETH-USD) and memecoins like shiba inu (SHIB-USD) corresponded with Bitcoin's bullishness. Ehtereum hit a 5-day high, crawling to $3,097 on Monday morning.
Several dog-themed coins led market moves outside of the top ten cryptos, with shiba rising as much as 21% to $0.000029 during Asian hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Meanwhile dogecoin (DOGE-USD) jumped to $0.160.
Watch: What is bitcoin?
"Sentiment around the crypto market has dramatically improved over the weekend as bitcoin has also broken out of a downtrend on the RSI dating back to October — bitcoin broke out of two similar downtrends on the RSI within the past year, which both resulted in incredible rallies, hence potentially foreshadowing a Bitcoin rally to the upside," said Marcus Sotiriou, analyst at GlobalBlock.
The RSI (relative strength index) is a momentum indicator, which shows when a market is overbought or oversold. Usually a number above 70 indicates that it's overbought and below 30 means it's oversold.
Last week, some US senators spoke positively about bitcoin. Senator Pat Toomey declared crypto assets are here to stay and "a thoroughly diversified portfolio should have some". Additionally, it was revealed on Friday that senator Ted Cruz purchased up to $50,000 worth of bitcoin last month, according to a financial disclosure filed with the US senate as first reported by CoinTelegraph.
