The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has reached a new 2023 high of $25,250 at the Binance exchange. This milestone comes after a surge in Bitcoin’s price over much of January, with the cryptocurrency gaining more than 40% in value since the start of the year.
The last time Bitcoin’s price was around $25,000 was near mid-June 2022 on its way down to between $19,000 and $21,000, where it had hovered for several months, according to data from CoinGecko. The price of BTC, however, took a big dip in November following the FTX crisis, which saw it drop to a 2022 low of $15,742 on Nov. 10. 2022.
The price began to surge in early January, when the price of BTC increased over 14 consecutive days between Jan. 4-17. That daily green candle streak was its second-longest in the cryptocurrency’s 14-year history — having fallen one day short of its 15-day record in November 2013.
While BTC has had an impressive start to 2023, it is still down 63% from its all-time high (ATH) of $69,044, which was reached on Nov. 10, 2021. Over the two days to Feb. 16, $80 million in short positions were liquidated on Bitcoin alone, with $65 million coming on Feb. 15 — the most in a single day since Jan. 20.
The U.S. Producer Price Index (PPI) print for January, nonetheless, extinguished some of the excitement on risk assets as it showed prices increasing more than expected on a year-on-year basis. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index were both down 1.1% at the time of writing.
BTC’s Short-Term Price Surge Debated By Economists And Traders
“Some signs of economic weakening in today’s macro data,” investment research resource Game of Trades wrote in part of a Twitter reaction, also noting that unemployment data had come in below the expected 200,000 claims for the week.
Holger Zschäpitz, a Senior Editor at the Economic and Financial desk of the German daily Die Welt, also tweeted that markets were rattled by hot US PPI data. The US PPI for January was hotter than the CPI from a few days ago, with a headline of +0.7% MoM vs +0.4%, PPI YoY at 6% vs 5.4% expected. Core US PPI disappointed as well, with +0.6% MoM vs +0.2% expected, 4.5% YoY vs 4% expected. In step with declining equities, the US dollar index (DXY) showed renewed strength, climbing above 104.1 to its highest levels since the first week of the year.
Markets rattled by hot US PPI data. US PPI for Jan was hot (hotter than the CPI from a few days ago), w/headline +0.7% MoM vs +0.4%, PPI YoY at 6% vs 5.4% expected. Core US PPI disappointed as well w/+0.6% MoM vs +0.2% expected, 4.5% YoY vs 4% expected. pic.twitter.com/IE7SWvcM8Q
— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) February 16, 2023
“Still going perfectly as expected, so far we’re seeing a D1 downtrend break and flip, eyes on D1 200 EMA in the 104.5-104.7 area as discussed the past couple of weeks,” popular trader Pierre wrote in an update on events.
Some economists, such as Lyn Alden, however, believe that BTC’s current price surge may be relatively short-lived. The Bitcoin bull believes actions from the US Federal Reserve will likely impose “considerable danger ahead” for BTC in the second half of 2023.
Meanwhile, Galaxy Digital Holdings CEO Mike Novogratz is more bullish over the short term. Speaking at a Bank of America conference on Feb. 15, Novogratz reportedly said there’s a chance BTC could hit $30,000 by the end of March.
Read more:
- Technical Analysis: Bitcoin Surges, $30k Target Possible?
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