Bitcoin is holding over $21,300 as the cryptocurrency’s market cap approaches $1 trillion

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(Kitco News) – The cryptocurrency market’s outlook continues to improve as Bitcoin (BTC) managed to hold on to its recent gains during trading on Tuesday while the total cryptocurrency market cap briefly rose above $1 trillion for the first time since early November, before the crash. FTX.

It was a mixed day in traditional markets as it kicked off a busy week with corporate earnings, with Goldman Sachs making headlines after it posted a 69% drop in fourth-quarter earnings. When markets closed in the US, the S&P and Dow both ended the day lower, down 0.20% and 1.14% respectively, while the Nasdaq managed a slight gain of 0.14%.

Data from TradingView shows that bitcoin price continued its bullish trend that started last week, albeit at a slower pace, reaching an intraday high of $21,605 before retreating to support around $21,300, where it is trading now.

4 hour BTC/USD chart. Source: TradingView

Bitcoin’s continued bull run has pushed the cryptocurrency to a four-month high, according to Kitco’s chief technical analyst, Jim Wyckoff. “The BC bulls have a strong overall technical advantage in the near term amid an upward price trend in the daily bar chart,” Wyckoff concluded, “suggesting further bullish near term.”

The RSI indicates an increase in price stability

Bitcoin’s recent strength has also been a focus in the latest “before the curve” market. to update From Arcane Research, who notes that BTC “has seen a whopping 23% gain and 2.2 percentage point market dominance growth over the past week as BTC leads the market recovery.”

The report cited last Thursday’s CPI reading of -0.1% as the main catalyst behind the increase. “The recent increase was mostly driven by short pressure which was led by consistent aggressive selling,” the update read. “BTC’s push above $20,000 was followed by a stabilization of open interest, which indicates that short traders have become cautious, which could lead to price stabilization in the short term.”

Arcane Research referred to the current rally — which took place in the depths of the cryptocurrency winter when many traders were out — as a “hated rally” as many fringe investors were shorting bitcoin or switching to fiat in anticipation of further declines.

“This caused a short squeeze and subsequent strength in BTC, which led to a rebound to pre-November price levels and pushed the RSI to multi-year highs, a strong signal of a change in momentum,” the analyst wrote.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI), a momentum indicator, has increased significantly over the past week and is pushing towards its 2019 highs. “This supports that the rally has been extended in the short term,” the report said. “It also marks the first proper sign of a momentum buildup in Bitcoin since the 2021 bull market.”

The report likened Bitcoin’s current recovery to its initial rebound from the depths of the 2018 bear market. “After the relative strength index rose above 80 in April 2019 after relative volatility pressure in March, BTC has been in its 40-day range. Now, BTC has recovered to the Q3 range.” And the relative strength index was extended, and short positions became cautious, which increases the possibility of stability in the near term.

Similarly, cryptocurrency market analyst Rekt Capital saw positive developments with the monthly Bitcoin RSI and highlighted the previous bear market bottom area as the area the indicator needs to climb above to signal an improving outlook.

For the first time since reaching an all-time low…

the #BTC Monthly RSI pressures above the previous bear market’s lower zone (in green)BTC dollars It needs to bring this area back into support and the RSI is doing all the right things towards that target# encrypt # Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/nggO7xnjn7

– Rekt Capital (rektcapital) January 17, 2023

Altcoins continue their bullish trend

It was an overall positive day for the altcoin market with the day’s gainers outnumbering the losers in both volume percentages.

Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360

Fetch.ai (FET) posted the biggest gains of the day, as the AI-focused project saw the token’s price increase by 17.56%, followed by a 15.6% increase for Casper (CSPR) and a 15.46% increase for Ocean Protocol (Ocean).

The total cryptocurrency market cap is now $998 billion, and the Bitcoin dominance rate is 41.2%.