Bitcoin Bullish Breakout
The total crypto market rallied this week, hovering around $3.23 trillion at press time. The extreme fear of a potential crypto bear market experienced during the fourth quarter has significantly reduced, with CoinMarketCap’s Fear and Greed Index hovering around 50/100, representing traders’ neutral position.
Bitcoin price recorded a bullish outlook and gold and major stock indexes experienced a pullback. Earlier this week, BTC price hit its 2-month high of around $97.7k before retracing to trade about $95.4k at press time.
As such, the BTC/USD pair is on the cusp of breaking out of a falling logarithmic trend to kickstart its parabolic growth in the near term. Furthermore, Bitcoin price has broken out of a crucial supply level around $94.4k.
Ethereum and Major Altcoins Signal Bullish Outlook
The altcoin industry, led by Ethereum (ETH), has signaled bullish momentum this week. According to market data analysis from Santiment, the wider crypto market gained a bullish outlook this week catalyzed by rising Open Interest.
The altcoin industry has maintained bullish sentiment as Mike Novogratz led the crypto community in anticipating the passage of the Clarity Act in the coming weeks.
Institutional Investors Returns Amid the Delayed Senate Markup for the Clarity Act
The demand for crypto assets by institutional investors surged this week amid heated regulatory debate in the United States Senate. The United States spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), led by BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC, recorded more than $2 billion in net cash inflows.
Strategy also recorded its first major Bitcoin purchase after getting pushed to the defensive during the fourth quarter. At the beginning of this week, the company purchased 13,627 BTCs for over $1.2 billion, thus increasing its holdings to 687,410 coins.
The renewed demand for crypto by institutional investors coincided with the hallmark of a bipartisan Senate debate on crypto legislation. Earlier this week, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong withdrew its support for the Clarity Act due to the negative influence of the traditional banking industry.