Bitcoin trades just shy of $55,000 for the first time since November 2021
Quick Take
- Bitcoin approached $55,000, marking its highest value in 27 months.
- Asset managers’ open interest in bitcoin futures on the CME has reached all-time highs.
- Some analysts warn of a potential decrease in Bitcoin’s price to $48,000.
Bitcoin 
BTC
+1.62%
finally traded just a few dollars under $55,000 for the first time in nearly 27 months.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency changed at around $54,900 — a gain of nearly 6% in one day — just after 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time Monday before dropping to $54,600 the following hour, according to The Block's Price Page. That’s the highest it has been since late November 2021.
The move is interesting given the recent downtrend in bitcoin spot volumes. Rebecca Stevens, senior research analyst at The Block, noted that bitcoin’s spot volume’s 7-day moving average has been slipping since February 15, just as ether’s spot volumes began to rise.
Over in the futures market, short open interest of hedge funds on the CME are at all-time highs, somewhere around $3.83 billion, according to the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. However, long open interest held by asset managers — namely, exchange-traded funds — are also at all-time highs at $3.58 billion.
“Both previously hit highs the week of spot bitcoin ETF approval and have seen movement in line with BTC price action, but is an indication that bitcoin bets from institutions haven't really scaled back after the launch,” said Stevens.
Technical take
Bitcoin has been on a tear at least since October 2023, according to technical analysts, when its 50-day moving average broke above its 200-day moving average. At the time, bitcoin was trading at $30,000. Thus, those using it as a signal would have been up over 80% since.
RELATED INDICES
Meanwhile, some technical analysts see a pullback on the horizon.
“On-chain data and Bitcoin price charts indicate the possibility of Bitcoin price correction in the coming weeks,” wrote data company CryptoQuant in a blogpost Sunday. The firm’s analysts base their prediction on an indicator they call “short term Holder SOPR,” which is short for “spent output profit ratio,” a ratio that divides the current value of sold bitcoin by their value when they were acquired. “It looks like Bitcoin may drop to the $48,000 area,” CryptoQuant concluded.
As of 4:46 p.m. ET, bitcoin was trading at $54,622, up 5.6%, while the GMCI index was at 120.16, up 3.8% in 24 hours, according to The Block's Price Page.
Updated to reflect that bitcoin rose to the highest since November 2021.
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