Asia’s First Mover: Santa Claus Rally Pushes Bitcoin Above $50,000

<p>Ether also experiences some holiday cheer, while polygon and terra reach new highs.</p> <p>What is occurring is as follows:</p> <p>The cryptocurrency market cheers for a "Santa rally" after bitcoin crossed a critical price level of $50,000.</p> <p>Technician's Take (Editor's note): Technician's Take will be unavailable during the holidays. In its place, First Mover Asia is publishing the third in a series of articles by CoinDesk markets analyst Damanick Dantes and Managing Editor of Markets Brad Keoun on the year in cryptocurrency markets.</p> <p>Catch up on the latest episodes of CoinDesk TV for insightful interviews and analysis with cryptocurrency industry leaders.</p> <p>Prices</p> <p>Bitcoin (BTC): $50,691 +3.9%</p> <p>Ether (ETH): $4,104 +2.8%</p> <p>Markets</p> <p>S&P 500: $4,725 +0.6%</p> <p>DJIA: $35,950 +0.5%</p> <p>Nasdaq: $15,653 +0.8%</p> <p>Gold: $1,808 +0.2%</p> <p>The market fluctuates</p> <p>Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, surpassed $50,000 for the first time since December 13 on Thursday. Major US stock indexes also increased in December, owing to improving consumer sentiment in the United States.</p> <p>Meanwhile, trading volume was low two days before Christmas. According to CoinDesk data, the trading volume of bitcoin across major centralised exchanges was only slightly higher than a day ago.</p> <p>Other cryptocurrencies have followed bitcoin's bullish trend: ethereum's price surpassed $4,100 on Thursday, gaining over 3% in the last 24 hours.</p> <p>Crypto Twitter erupted in applause for a so-called Santa rally in support of bitcoin. The oldest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation has struggled for more than a week to break through $50,000, while other cryptocurrencies (altcoins) such as LUNA and MATIC have soared to new highs.</p> <p>Market wrap-up for the year</p> <p>Bitcoin Peaks as Coinbase Goes Public: Market Wrap Year-End Review Tesla's acceptance of bitcoin aided in propelling the BTC price to an all-time high near $65,000