Bitcoin price today touches highest in 2 weeks as traders look for bottom

Bitcoin price today breached $39,000 for the first time in two weeks.

Bitcoin price today gained as much as 2.% to $39,267 before paring the increase. (REUTERS)

Bitcoin price today breached $39,000 for the first time in two weeks as traders speculate the largest cryptocurrency may have reached a bottom following its recent collapse from record highs. The digital asset gained as much as 2.% to $39,267 before paring the increase. It hit a record of almost $69,000 in November. Ether outperformed its larger rival, rising as much as 5% to $2,814. Solana gained even more, jumping about 15% in the past 24 hours. 

Expectations of tightening monetary policy helped spur a bearish downturn last month in cryptocurrency assets. However, confidence and risk appetite appears to be returning, according to a report by Arcane Research. Over the last week, Bitcoin has traded sideways with uncharacteristically low volatility, the researchers said.

Bitcoin has developed a strong correlation with the U.S. stock market, particularly the technology-heavy Nasdaq 100 index. However, when the stock market isn't trending strongly in either direction, Bitcoin is “its own animal,” said Nathan Batchelor, lead Bitcoin analyst at SIMETRI Research. Correlation between the Nasdaq and Bitcoin currently sits at 0.45, with 1 equating to lockstep moves.

“The thing that makes crypto unique is that it's got its own pulling forces,” said Batchelor. But, he added that “when the stock market is moving, we do have to bear in mind that its personality is magnified.”

Nicholas Cawley, a strategist at DailyFX, cited $39,600 as an important level. He expects Bitcoin's short-term trading zone to settle between $32,980 and $39,620.

Dorsey Says Zuckerberg Should Have Focused on Bitcoin, Not Diem

(Bloomberg) Block Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey criticized Meta Platforms Inc.'s failed cryptocurrency project, Diem, saying the company's time would have been better spent focused on advancing Bitcoin.

Dorsey said Tuesday that Meta's approach to Diem, a proposed cryptocurrency formerly known as Libra that came to an unceremonious end this week, wasn't open enough. Instead, Dorsey says Meta was too focused on driving people to its own suite of products, like WhatsApp and Instagram.

“They tried to create a currency that was owned by Facebook -- probably for the right reasons, probably for noble reasons -- but there were also some reasons that would indicate trying to get more and more people onto the Facebook ecosystem,” Dorsey said Tuesday at the MicroStrategy World conference. “They did that instead of using an open protocol and standard like Bitcoin.”

“Hopefully they learned a lot, but I think there was a lot of wasted effort and time,” he added. “Those two years or three years, or however long it's been, could have been spent making Bitcoin more accessible for more people around the world, which would also benefit their Messenger product and Instagram and WhatsApp.”

Meta started Diem in mid-2019 alongside a consortium of other tech and finance companies with hopes the digital currency would become a global rival to Bitcoin and other fiat currencies. The idea was to create something that could be transmitted instantaneously between users, even across borders. Diem was spun out into its own independent organization, meaning Meta was no longer controlling the currency's fate, but the project never moved out from under Meta's shadow. It was ultimately killed by regulatory pushback, which made it difficult for the Diem Association to launch its proposed digital coin.

Meta built a digital wallet for its suite of apps that was intended to hold Diem and allow people to spend or transfer it.

On Monday, the Diem Association confirmed that it sold its remaining assets to Silvergate Capital Corp.

Dorsey, a founder of Twitter Inc., is a long-time Facebook rival. He is also one of the tech industry's most famous and vocal Bitcoin supporters, and believes deeply in the currency's promise to be decentralized -- meaning no individual company or bank would be able to own or control it.

When Meta first announced its plans for Diem, Dorsey was critical of the effort. When asked if he planned to join the association running Diem, he said “hell no.” After Bloomberg reported last week that the Diem Association was in talks to sell its remaining assets, Dorsey tweeted a link to the story with the commentary, “carpe diem.”