Bitcoin (BTC) has finally topped $8,000. In a move that can only be described as shocking, the cryptocurrency market returned on Monday, pushing dramatically higher on an array of fundamentalists and what one crypto Youtuber, Ivan On Tech, has called “global FOMO”.

Bitcoin now sits at its highest level since mid-2018, posting a 14% gain as of the time of writing this. It isn’t clear when the buying pressure is going to stop, but this is quite a sight to behold.

As the leading cryptocurrency has boomed, pushing past key resistance levels like they are nothing more than soggy pieces of parchment, other crypto assets have done relatively poorly. Ethereum, for instance, is up a relatively measly 8.66% in the past 24 hours; XRP is up 5.76%, nearing the $0.33 level. The only notable cryptocurrencies that have beat the market leader are Binance Coin, posting a 17% gain as its deposits and withdrawals start to come online; Tron’s BitTorrent; and Bitcoin Cash.

As a result of this relative Bitcoin strength, BTC’s dominance has topped 60%, reaching levels not seen since the asset’s jaw-dropping rally to $20,000 in December 2017.

With this move, BTC has surged past a number of key resistances, namely $7,400 and $8,000, and cements bullish narratives in the minds of traders across the board.

What makes this move even more promising is that according to Google Trends, the search terms for “Bitcoin” and “buy Bitcoin” have yet to surge higher, indicating that much of the rally is being caused by those already involved in the space, not common Joes and Jills.

This begs the question, what exactly have been the catalysts for this move?

Well, as researcher Alex Kruger postulates, insiders and whales are trying to “front run” an array of news events, in a bid to accumulate BTC before their counterparts in the retail trading environment. Some news that said investors may be trying to front run include, the impending launch of Bakkt’s physical Bitcoin futures, the inaugural trading session of Fidelity’s crypto trade execution service, mainstream adoption through Facebook’s and Samsung’s respective blockchains, and rumors that eBay is going to join the cryptocurrency fray by the end of the week.

This is seemingly confirmed by the fact that Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) saw $150 million in trading volume on Monday, which is a sign that institutional investors and accredited investors are throwing their hats into the ring rapidly.

The post Bitcoin (BTC) Roars Past $8,000, Leaves Bloodied U.S. Stock Market In Its Wake appeared first on NewsBTC.

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