Bitcoin breaks above $44,000 level

Ether added 4%, trading at around $3,121, XRP added 16% to $0.78, Solana rose to $120 with a 6% gain, Shiba Inu climbed 49.5% at nearly $0.000034 and Dogecoin added 10.6% to nearly $0.16

Bitcoin (BTC) broke above a key price level at $44,000 as bitcoin short-term holders earned profits for the first time since late November.

Bitcoin got another price boost on Monday after more than 11% price gains last Friday. The last time bitcoin gained by more than 11% in a 24-hour period was in June, according to data from TradingView and Bitstamp.

As bitcoin’s price increased, coins that were spent and younger than 155 days, or those coins owned by short-term holders (STH), realized profits on aggregate for the first time since late November, according to blockchain data firm Glassnode.

Nicholas Cawley, strategist at DailyFX wrote that bitcoin could rise to over $46,000 as a so-called ‘bull flag’ chart pattern forms, which is viewed as bullish. A break and close above $44,500 would ‘allow bitcoin to complete the bull flag formation,’ Cawley wrote.

However, the recent gains look more of a technical move rather than any fundamental shift, Cawley wrote. The recent push higher in bitcoin has sent it into overbought territory and this needs to be negated to allow BTC to push higher.

For other cryptocurrencies, ether advanced 4% in the past 24 hours, trading at around $3,121. XRP added 16% to $0.78. Solana rose to $120 with a 6% gain. Meme coins Shiba Inu climbed 49.5% over the past 24 hours at nearly $0.000034, while Dogecoin added 10.6% to nearly $0.16.

Polygon (MATIC), the token of scaling systems project Polygon, was leading the latest price rally, up by almost 20% in the past 24 hours, according to Messari. The project announced on Monday that it raised $450 million in a round of funding led by Sequoia Capital India.