Bitcoin Prices Surge to Intrday Highs
Bitcoin prices surged to an intraday high of $62,790 during the Friday morning Asian trading session. The move added 9.5% to the value of the asset over the past 12 hours as it climbed from its intraday low of $57,000 late on Aug. 8. Bitcoin has now recovered around 25% from its dump to $49,800 on Monday following a bout of dip buying and is on track for recovery back to its range-bound channel and accumulation zone.
Death Cross Avoided
In a post on X on Aug.9, analyst and ITC Crypto founder Benjamin Cowen said that Bitcoin would rally into its death cross. The forecast has now materialized, and the bearish technical signal is in the past … for now.
- A death cross is a technical analysis indicator that shows a short-term moving average falling below a longer-term moving average, usually a 50-day and a 200-day. It is often a signal of a bearish trend reversal, but that is not always the case.
- Cowen observed that in 2023, BTC started its rally just after the death cross. “It then got above its 50-day SMA (simple moving average) and subsequently held it as support before going higher,” he added.
- However, in 2022, there was a small rally into the death cross, but it faded after the chart pattern occurred.
- The analyst concluded that Bitcoin would have to hold above support at $62,000 for the move upwards to be sustained. However, the asset has since retraced below that level.
Analysis of Crypto Markets
Total capitalization has gained 6% on the day, returning to $2.2 trillion at the time of writing. However, it needs to reclaim $2.5 trillion to wipe out all losses this week. Bitcoin has been in the driving seat, but Ethereum is also showing strong signs of recovery. ETH added 9% on the day, topping $2,700 during Asian trading before cooling slightly to trade at $2,630 at the time of writing. Altcoins are mostly in the green with double-digit gains for Near Protocol (NEAR), Pepe (PEPE), Stacks (STX), Bittensor (TAO), and a whopping 32% for Sui (SUI).
Closing Thoughts on the Market
Analysts responding to the tweet said, “The first death cross is not a big deal, it’s the second one we should be more nervous about.” There were two death crosses during the 2021 bull market, a large rally followed the first but the two-year bear market followed the second. The durability of this move will likely depend on first BTC getting above its 50D SMA ($62k), and then holding it as support like it did in 2023.