Why Are Bitcoin Prices (BTCUSD) Surging Beyond $17,000? Here’s Why

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Written By: Eno Eteng (MSTA)
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    Summary:
  • Bitcoin prices on the BTCUSD pair are surging beyond $17,000. Why is this happening and could a run towards $20,000 be on its way?

Bitcoin prices on the BTCUSD charts have crossed the pivotal 17,000 mark this Tuesday, on the back of massive institutional flows into the number 1 crypto.

Last week marked 12 years that Satoshi Nakamoto released the Bitcoin white paper, and recent data show that BTC outflows from institutional wallets have reduced dramatically, which indicate some HODLing going on among the high rollers. 

Various institutional players are now publicly declaring their crypto holdings, with Grayscale announcing it owns 500,000 BTC worth $8.5 billion. MicroStrategy and Square are two companies whose massive Bitcoin acquisitions spurred a round of institutional interest not seen before in cryptocurrencies. 

The bull run of Bitcoin prices in 2020 has now stretched to 112 days, making it the first time in history it has achieved this. Prices are now being driven higher as the fear of missing out (FOMO) is also driving increased retail participation.

Technical Levels to Watch

Bitcoin is now officially at its third-highest closing levels ever, with prices at 17,047.00 as at the time of writing. The initial upside target from this area lies at the January 2018 high of 17,235.87. The 18 December 2017 high of 19215.99 and the all-time high at just under 19,700 are additional targets to the north. 

On the flip side, a failure to sustain the move above the 17,000 psychological support brings back last week’s high at 16,500 as the initial downside target, followed by the 16,000, 15822.71 and 15,206.56 support levels. However, the momentum is firmly with the bulls, driven by massive institutional support, and this could allow these downside targets to become dip areas to initiate re-entries in the long direction. 

BTCUSD Weekly Chart

Written By: Eno Eteng (MSTA)

Eno is a certified financial technician and member of the UK Society of Technical Analysts. He loves to trade and write about stocks, Forex, and CFDs. Since 2009, he has consulted several financial companies as a trader and strategy developer. His work can be seen on several forex blogs and trading educational websites.

Published by
Written By: Eno Eteng (MSTA)