(Kitco News) - It was a mixed day in the crypto market as Bitcoin (BTC) climbed to its highest price since June while the broader altcoin market saw pullbacks in some of the top performers from recent weeks as other tokens surged higher.
Stocks, on the other hand, saw declines across the board as the extra time that investors have had to evaluate Tuesday’s hotter-than-expected CPI report and a more hawkish tone from Federal Reserve representatives drained the momentum out of the market. At the closing bell in the U.S., the S&P, Dow and Nasdaq all finished the day lower than they started, down 1.38%, 1.26% and 1.78%, respectively.
Data from TradingView shows that Bitcoin bulls managed to extend yesterday’s rally into the afternoon on Thursday, propelling the top crypto to a daily high of $25,260, its highest price since June 13. At the time of writing, BTC is trading near support at $24,500.
BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView
The outlook for BTC continues to improve, with March Bitcoin futures prices hitting a new contract high in early U.S. trading on Thursday, according to Kitco senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff, who noted that “Bulls have regained the firm overall near-term technical advantage, to suggest more price gains in the near term.”
Cryptocurrency market analyst Rekt Capital highlighted a positive development on the Bitcoin chart as the top crypto looks poised to break out of the macro downtrend that it has been stuck in since late 2022.
#BTC is getting close to breaking the Macro Downtrend$BTC #Crypto #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/m6gwHtgOOK
— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) February 16, 2023
“Break it and BTC will confirm entry into a new Bull Market,” Rekt Capital said in a follow-up tweet.
A similar outlook was shared by Scott Melker, host of the Wolf of all Streets podcast, who posted the following tweet highlighting the importance of a weekly candle close above $25,212.
$BTC Weekly
— The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) February 16, 2023
$25,212.
I've been screaming about this number for weeks.
A break above (ideally close) makes a higher high for the first time since $69,000.
That breaks the bear trend.
Just tapped it, to the penny... and dropped in the short term.
Time to pay attention! pic.twitter.com/8yhMNuR41P
Altcoins consolidate
It was a mixed day in the altcoin market as a slight majority of tokens in the top 200 experienced minor losses while the tokens that are in the green saw double-digit gains.
Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360
The day’s best performance was posted by Conflux (CFX), gaining 24.17% to trade at $0.1178, while MX Token (MX) gained 20.22% and MAGIC (MAGIC) climbed 19.5%.
The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.106 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 42.8%.
