Bitcoin Rises. Why Wall Street Sees New Highs for the Crypto Soon. — Barrons.com
By Elsa OhlenThe price of Bitcoin rose early Monday amid a broader rally among cryptocurrencies.Bitcoin is up 1.8% to $99,449 over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. It rose about 6% last week.The world's largest cryptocurrency is off from its brief peak above $108,000 in mid-December but is attempting to return above the 50-day moving average. "A solid break above $97,000 will allow us to expect new highs above $110,000 soon," FxPro analyst Alex Kuptsikevich wrote Friday.Crypto investors might want to keep an eye on the equities market as well. The end of 2024 showed the mood of cryptocurrency enthusiasts was undermined by a downward reversal in U.S. and China stocks, Kuptsikevich noted.Futures tracking the S&P 500 were up 0.8% early Monday. The Hang Seng Index closed down 0.4% Monday amid worries about President-elect Donald Trump's plans to impose tariffs on China.Separately, MicroStrategy, the software company that's best known for being the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, is targeting a capital raise of up to $2 billion to acquire more of the digital coin, it said Friday.MicroStrategy has an ambitious agenda when it comes to Bitcoin. In October, it announced plans to buy $42 billion worth of Bitcoin, funded by issuing an equal amount of equities and bonds. On Monday, it said that between Dec. 30 and Dec. 31, it bought another 1,070 Bitcoins for $101 million in cash. With this latest purchase, its total Bitcoin holdings is now 447,470 Bitcoins, worth about $44.4 billion based on current prices.MicroStrategy stock was up 3.9% in premarket trading Monday.Among other cryptocurrencies, XRP is trading 1.4% higher over the past 24 hours, while Ethereum is up 1%. Solana and Dogecoin are up 2.8% and 2%, respectively, according to CoinDesk data.Write to Elsa Ohlen at [email protected] content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.