(Bloomberg) — Bitcoin climbed above $50,000 for the first time in almost two weeks as positive investor sentiment spread through financial markets ahead of the holidays.
The digital alternative to cash jumped as much as 3.5% to $50,781 in New York trading before slightly paring gains. Altcoins including Ether and Solana also rose.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value had fallen about 30% over the past five weeks after setting a record high of almost $69,000 in early November. News that central banks around the globe are considering tighter monetary policy had weighed on risk appetite over the last few weeks, causing some investors to question whether so-called risk assets like cryptocurrencies and highly valued software stocks are due for a steeper correction after rallying throughout the pandemic.
On Thursday those fears appeared to have cooled as U.S. stocks across most all sectors were in the green.
“I view Bitcoin as a high-beta risk asset. When risk appetite is up, it’s up big. And when risk appetite is down, it can be down big,” said Ross Mayfield, an investment strategy analyst at Baird. “It’s not perfectly correlated, that’s definitely too simple of a read, but it’s certainly not a volatility hedge.”
Technical analysis suggests the coin established a so-called double bottom around $46,800, and faces a technical resistance level of about $50,635.
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