Demand outpacing supply is “THE story in Bitcoin right now,” as BTC is already knocking on the door of its all-time high of USD 20,000, Dan Morehead, CEO and Co-founder of major crypto investment firm Pantera Capital, stressed.

PayPal’s crypto push is “already having a huge impact,” Morehead wrote in his November letter on Friday, pointing to PayPal’s 300 million users who just gained easy access to bitcoin. This development comes on the heels of first-mover Jack Dorsey’s Square’s Cash App, which has been in the bitcoin game for more than two years and whose bitcoin sales continue to increase quarter after quarter. Cash App raked in USD 1.63bn “of bitcoin revenue” in the third quarter this year.

Morehead pointed out that between PayPal and Cash App, “more than 100% of all newly issued bitcoins” are already being bought.” If PayPal continues buying at its current pace, it will be “buying more than all of the newly issued bitcoin within weeks,” Morehead noted, adding that this is where the “finite supply, inelasticity part comes in: At a higher price.” These dynamics are paving the way for the bitcoin shortage and are driving the bitcoin price close to new heights.

Moreover, PayPal and Square aren’t the only ones buying up bitcoins. As reported, on Friday, Managing Director at major crypto asset management firm Grayscale, Michael Sonnenshein, said that their team “scoped up over USD 188m [around BTC 10,000] into Grayscale Bitcoin Trust alone, yesterday.”

Read more: Crypto News

Bitcoin price continues its parabolic intraweek rally with a surging breakout from the bullish pennant we discussed in yesterday’s analysis. Since the opening of the traditional markets on Monday, BTC has risen by an eye-watering 17%.

With the leading crypto asset now holding at around $18,700, it’s only 5% shy from getting back to its all-time high set on December 17, 2017 – 1,069 days ago.

Looking at the global crypto picture, a further $21 billion has entered the market in the last 16 hours.

Price Levels to Watch in the Short-term

On the 1-hour BTC/USD chart, we can see that the $18,800 level has created some intraday resistance as bullish traders eye the psychological $19K level above. This is the first wall bullish traders need to push through if the uptrend is to continue and is being made all the more difficult by the fact BTC has broken into the overbought region on the RSI.

If this is overcome, there is a much stronger resistance at $18,953 (lowest yellow line) that represents the highest weekly close ever on Bitcoin’s chart. This will be a major test of bullish confidence.

Above that, we have the 1.618 Fibonacci resistance at $19,386 and the all-time high at $19,660. From there folks, we are into price discovery!

Read more: Crypto Potato

• Bitcoin and the aggregated crypto market are pushing higher today, with BTC breaking above $17,000 while Ethereum helps lead altcoins higher as well
• The benchmark cryptocurrency hasn’t seen much selling pressure at this level, despite it long being viewed as resistance
• It has struggled to break above this level a few times, but the selling pressure here has not catalyzed any sharp selloff
• Where it trends next will depend largely on whether or not it can firmly surmount this level before tonight’s daily candle close
• A firm close above here could help further perpetuate what one firm is describing as the “longest and most stable” rally that Bitcoin has ever seen

Bitcoin’s intense uptrend is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. The crypto is now pushing $17,000 as bulls look to make a sustainable break above this crucial level.

Whether or not it is surmounted in the near-term will depend largely on whether or not bears attempt to reverse the uptrend at this point. There are already serious signs of exhaustion amongst sellers, so they may not be in a position to catalyze a selloff.

Where the entire market trends next will depend entirely on Bitcoin and how it reacts to this crucial level.

Read more: Bitcoinist

An unstable global economy, fears of inflation, and institutional investors warming up to cryptocurrencies have pushed Bitcoin prices to record closes.

The Bitcoin price set a new record this week as the pioneer cryptocurrency posted the highest ever three-week close in its 12-year history, data shows.

…

While Bitcoin reached its highest price of nearly $20,000 in the first week of December 2017, its weekly chart closed much lower at $13,500. This price behavior indicated that—at the time—the open market considered Bitcoin to be highly overvalued and the $20,000 price a mere wick in the longer-term outlook, with the tri-weekly charts moving in a downtrend from then until February 2019.

But the scenario has since changed, and the market is now accepting a higher price for Bitcoin. The latest tri-weekly candle for the asset closed at $15,960—an 18% increase—showing that the market is now valuing Bitcoin much higher than it did in 2017.

Read more: Decrypt

Grayscale, which runs the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), bought this week another 15,114 Bitcoin ($241 million). GBTC holds 481,711 Bitcoin, representing 62% of all Bitcoins in the ownership of publicly-traded companies.

In brief

• Grayscale this week bought another 15,114 Bitcoin ($241 million), bringing the total number of Bitcoin the company owns to 506,000, or $8.1 billion. The company now manages a total of $10 billion worth of cryptocurrency.
• Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which was created in 2013, is the company’s biggest trust. The total value of assets managed by Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) now exceeds $8.2 billion.
• GBTC holds 481,711 Bitcoin, which corresponds to 62% of the 814,359 Bitcoins in the ownership of publicly-traded companies.

Grayscale, a digital assets management company, this week bought another 15,114 Bitcoin ($241 million), bringing the total number of Bitcoin the company owns to 506,000, or $8.1 billion. The company now manages a total of $10 billion worth of cryptocurrency.

Grayscale is among the biggest purchasers of Bitcoin. Its total investments comprise 2.29% of Bitcoin’s entire market cap.

Michael Sonnehnshein, Managing Director of Grayscale, declared this week the largest capital raise week “EVER,” after the firm raised $262 million. He said that on Thursday the company “raked in over $115 million in Bitcoin alone.”

Read more: Decrypt

The co-founder of Stone Ridge explains his fascination with Bitcoin and why his company bought $162 million worth of it.

In brief

• Stone Ridge co-founder Robby Gutmann explained why the company recently bought 10,000 Bitcoin as part of its treasury reserve strategy.
• He also touched on why people are fascinated with Bitcoin, describing it as “flavors of crypto nerd.”
• Gutmann listed three observable trends, suggesting that investments in Bitcoin are poised to grow even further.

In mid-October, Stone Ridge Holdings Group, an asset management company with $10 billion worth of assets under its belt, revealed that it had bought 10,000 Bitcoin (BTC), currently worth over $162 million, as part of its treasury reserve strategy.

During The Breakdown podcast today, Stone Ridge co-founder Robby Gutmann shed some light on factors that led to this decision.

The fragility of fiat systems

Speaking about Stone Ridge’s long journey to Bitcoin, he started on a personal level. According to Gutmann, there are “three flavors of crypto nerd”—and he can relate to all of them.

Read more: Decrypt

Bitcoin’s seduction of mainstream investors continues as a new report suggests it’s a better performing asset than stocks and gold.

In brief

• Bitcoin pushes past $16000 as it outperforms stocks and gold.
• Ethereum suffered a brief hard fork but prices continued to climb.
• Stock Markets had a mixed day as US fails to halt rising COVID cases.

It was another strong day on the crypto markets as research highlighted Bitcoin’s market-beating performance when compared to traditional stocks and shares.

According to a note from analytics firm Messari, Bitcoin in comparison to real estate, stocks, gold and bonds delivers a higher rate of return over a four year period.

Bitcoin’s low correlation with other asset classes has made it an increasingly attractive asset to offset any losses seen in other parts of investor’s portfolios, said Mira Christanto, the Messari report author.

The report noted renewed interest from sovereign wealth and pension funds, concluding, “they have realized this opportunity and have begun new allocation strategies to maximize long-term value.”

The news helped crypto global market cap record its fourth straight day of growth. Prices ticked up 2.58% over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin took a healthy jump up with a 4.35% rise, thanks to its surge into the $16,000 at the time of writing.

Read more: Decrypt

From institutional investors, big endorsements and the Bitcoin halving, here are 5 key reasons for Bitcoin’s rising price.

In brief

• Bitcoin’s price has been increasing for months, and there are several reasons behind the surge.
• High-profile figures and companies have expressed support for Bitcoin.
• Other reasons include Bitcoin halving, which also has a direct impact on Bitcoin’s price.

The price of Bitcoin is above $16,000, having broken through for the first time in three years. Its current price of $16,081 represents a 28% increase in value over the last three months.

It’s been a rapid rise since March, when Bitcoin drastically fell to

its lowest point of the year, touching as low as $4,000. The coin has continued to bounce back and has fought its way above the $10,000 price point, going on to make new recent highs—and hit values not seen since Bitcoin’s epic 2017 bull run. Yet this time, an entirely different set of circumstances are accelerating Bitcoin’s price to new highs.

Why is Bitcoin going up?

There are a multitude of reasons for Bitcoin’s price rise. Investment from large institutions like MicroStrategy have led the way, as have major companies like Grayscale managing Bitcoin for their own clients. What’s more, it’s now easier to buy Bitcoin since PayPal began letting people buy and sell Bitcoin.

Bitcoin’s total supply has also halved, and this has also played a role in Bitcoin’s price increase. Each of these individual factors have combined to generate an impressive bull run for Bitcoin during the second half of 2020. But it all began with MicroStrategy.

Read more: Decrypt