Bitcoin Rally Cools as it Falls Below the $60,000 Milestone

2021 has been an excellent year for Bitcoin so far. The leading cryptocurrency started off the year with a bang, unlike the beginning of 2020. While the global COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc across most markets, the crypto space seemed to have benefitted the most, as it helped bring about Bitcoin’s second bull-run in history that helped it break past the previous record highs it had reached back in 2017. The pioneer cryptocurrency has come a long way from the $20,000 mark. As a matter of fact, over the weekend, it managed to roar past the impressive milestone of $60,000 for the first time. 

However, come Monday, the cryptocurrency tumbled by nearly 7%, as the rally in the benchmark crypto asset appeared to cool off. In the last week, Bitcoin had been hovering mostly around the $56,000 mark and had been facing resistance at the $60,000 level. But, on March 13th, Saturday, Bitcoin experienced a 9% surge in its price and was able to clear the $60,000 milestone. According to the data provided by CoinDesk, the cryptocurrency had settled at a price of $61,519. Nonetheless, early on Monday, the rally subsided, as Bitcoin once more dropped down to the same price levels it had been on March 8th. 

Other major cryptocurrencies also experienced a similar movement, as they often tend to move in tandem with the leading crypto. Underpinning the Ethereum network, the price of the Ether tokens had increased on Saturday by 11% and had moved past the $1,900 mark. By Monday morning, they had fallen by 8%. Meanwhile, there had been a 14% increase in the price of Litecoin from early March 12th to March 13th, but it had come down on Monday morning by more than 10%. An analyst at CMC Markets, Michael Hewson noted that retail traders could have had a major role behind the latest price increase in Bitcoin. 

From the beginning of 2020 to the new peak Bitcoin reached on Saturday, institutional investors have played a very notable role in propelling the crypto higher by 750%. However, it cannot be denied that the enthusiasm of retail investors for the cryptocurrency has also been a strong part of the crypto trend. On Monday, Hewson said that there was a possibility that the latest round of stimulus to be given in the United States, including checks of $1,400, could have also played an important role in increasing Bitcoin’s price. 

Now that Bitcoin has managed to clear the $60,000 hurdle, a lot of the Bitcoin bulls are now eying the $100,000 mark and are considering it as a key milestone that could be achieved. The rise in price of the cryptocurrency appears to be happening rather rapidly, as Bitcoin took less than a month to increase its value by $10,000, as it had only crossed the $50,000 mark on February 16th. Blockchain startup Chainlink’s cofounder, Sergey Nazarov said on Saturday that considering the momentum of the cryptocurrency, even a price of $100,000 might be lowballing it.