Bitcoin price soars over $8,000 and volumes are spiking

Scott
Olson/Getty Images

• Action on some of the most notable crypto trading
  venues is spiking. 
• Bitcoin bull Tom Lee says that’s a sign the market
  bottom for bitcoin is behind us. 
• 
  Watch
  bitcoin trade in real-time, here.
  

Action on some of the largest trading venues in crypto is heating
up as the price of bitcoin, the largest digital currency,
approaches $8,500 a coin. 

Bitcoin, which spent much of 2018 in the doldrums, has seen its
price soar by nearly $1,000 over the last week, reaching a
two-month high on Tuesday. At last check, the cryptocurrency was
trading at $8,217 a coin. 

At the same time, crypto volumes — digital currencies changing
hands — on exchanges have seen a spike in activity. And bitcoin
bull Tom Lee, head of research at Fundstrat, says its a meaningful
signal that the bitcoin bottom is behind us. 

“It’s more evidence supporting a bottom,” Lee said in an
e-mail to Business Insider. 

According to Bloomberg data, bitcoin bottomed out at $5,791
on June 29. As for how high bitcoin can go in 2018, Tom Lee
has
stood by his $25,000 price target. 

“A few weeks ago when bitcoin started to rally,
skeptics dismissed the move saying there was no volume,” he
added. “Now we have massive jumps in volume.”

Across exchanges, volumes have increased from to over $20 billion
on Tuesday, according to data from CoinMarketCap. 

Meanwhile, BitMEX, the peer-to-peer mercantile trading venue, saw
records volumes, turning over $8 billion bitcoin in
traded volume over the past 24 hours, a spokesman told Business
Insider. 

CME Group, the exchange behind one of the markets for bitcoin
futures in the US, saw turnover for its contracts increase from
1,600 on July 3 to more than 12,800 contracts traded on July 24,

according to the firm’s data. 

CME Group

Bitcoin’s breakout over $8,000 married with strong volumes is a
sign that current price levels are sustainable, said eToro
analyst Mati Greenspan. 

“As with traditional markets when a breakout happens on
strong volume, it’s considered a more powerful move and is more
likely to be sustained,” Greenspan said in an
e-mail. 

Rohit Kulkarni, a managing director at Private Investment
Research, said fundamentals and technicals are pointing towards a
continuation of the current rally. 

“Technical analysis supports a bullish pattern as Bitcoin tends
to rebound after it trades below its 200-day moving average,”
Kulkarni said. “Plus, we have seen constructive commentary
supporting Crypto ETF products, which could help unlock interest
among institutional investors.”

On Tuesday, the market for digital currencies saw the bitcoin ETF
race gain another contestant with Bitwise Asset Management filing
an application for a fund tied to 10 cryptos. Still, it’s not
clear when the Securities and Exchange Commission would approve
such a fund.

The SEC postponed deciding on five crypto-linked funds by
Direxion Investments on Tuesday.