The cryptocurrency market's rally this year continues to post impressive gains following a big rally late Wednesday night by the world's largest digital asset.
Bitcoin broke through the vaunted $100,000 mark at 9:45 p.m. ET, breaking through that level to just above $103,000, according to data from CoinGecko.
In the past 24 hours, Bitcoin Layer 2 Stack (STX) native token experienced the biggest gain, rising 15% to $3. Meanwhile, The Sandbox (SAND) took second place, rising 14% to $0.87.
Ignoring the market frenzy, the rally also saw a resurgence in altcoins that had long been affiliated with Ethereum and Bitcoin.
Ethereum Classic (ETC) and Bitcoin SV (BSV) have extended their gains, reaching levels last seen in March and April, respectively. ETC rose 17% this week to $37, while BSV rose 18% to $84.30.
Given the historic milestone, investors are now wondering how far the bull market will continue before President-elect Donald Trump re-enters the White House on January 20th.
But market analysts say the rally is only heating up.
“Looking at past market cycles, it feels like we are still in the very early stages of this bull market,” Josh Gilbert, market analyst at eToro, told Decrypt.
But Gilbert warned market participants to be wary of “profit-taking” along the way and urged them to remember that assets rarely rise in a straight line “forever.”
“Bitcoin's drawdown is to be expected, but it feels like something big will need to happen to slow Bitcoin down at this point.”
Others, like Pav Hundal, principal analyst at Swyftx, agree.
“We are still seeing a lot of bidding activity in the market,” Hundal told Decrypt. “Crypto exchange trading volumes hit an all-time high in November, and order flow continues to increase. This is simply a rally of forward momentum.”
Wednesday's rise came after President Trump nominated former Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Paul Atkins to be the regulator's next chairman.
“Crypto users will rejoice in the fact that Bitcoin has surpassed $100,000 on the back of Atkins being nominated as Gary Gensler’s SEC Chairman candidate,” Hunal added. “I couldn’t have written the script.”
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