Today Bitcoin (BTC) price extended its rally toward a new all-time high as the price surged to $19,412 in the morning trading session.
Determining the actual all-time high for BTC is somewhat debatable as various exchanges have different figures listed. For example, Coinbase has registered $19,892 as Bitcoin’s peak, whereas BitMEX and Binance have $19,891 and $19,799 respectively. Thus, for most traders, $20,000 is likely to be the primary focal point that will solidify BTC reaching a new all-time high.
Pushing through the $19,000 level occurred quicker than many expected, especially after Bitcoin price plummeted to $18,000 in the evening hours on Nov. 23. This drop was nearly in tandem with XRP’s 30% drop at Coinbase after the altcoin pumped to $0.92.
Data from TheTie, a social analytics data platform, shows that as Bitcoin price lost momentum on Nov. 22 and Nov. 23, trading sentiment took a noticeable hit when traders anticipated a possible retest of lower supports in the sub-$18,000 zone.
According to Joshua Frank, the founder at TheTIE:
“The daily sentiment score looks at how positive or negative investors have been over the last 24 hours versus a rolling 20-day window. This metric (daily sentiment) has been positive (above 50) since Nov. 16 when Bitcoin was near $16K. For the daily sentiment score to remain positive, that means that conversations must continually get more and more positive. So if investors are positive over the last 20 days, they must be even more positive over the last 24 hours for the score to stay above 50.”
This suggests that regardless of strong pullbacks to say $18,000 or below, the majority of people investing in or tracking Bitcoin price still feel overwhelmingly bullish about the digital asset’s prospects when compared to historical price and sentiment data.
Google Trends data also shows that searches for the term ‘Bitcoin’ also reached a 2020 high today as the price rallied above $19,000 but the figure is nowhere near the high seen in December 2017.
What’s next for Bitcoin price?
As shown on the 4-hour chart, Bitcoin’s flushout to $18,000 created a double bottom right at the key support, and bulls stepped in to buy the dip with 3 successive high volume spikes.
At the time of writing the price has already pulled back to restest the lower support at $18,900 and if this level fails to hold then the next support is at $18,650 which is slightly above the 20-MA and a high volume node on the VPVR.
Similar to the move up to $18,000, a period of consolidation and support building is normal and healthy for sustaining momentum in an uptrend.
According to Matt Blom, the head of global sales trading at EQUOS:
“Bitcoin is focusing on claiming a new all-time high and it seems highly unlikely that having come this close, it fails to break the 2017 record. With a dearth of resistance levels overhead, thoughts turn to the next key upside target. Using Fibonnaci retracements levels, we see $29,100 as the goal, with a 1.618 move from $4,644 to $19,447 price points as our basis.”