Bitcoin Price Breaches $12K for First Time Since August

Bitcoin (BTC) prices rallied Tuesday, briefly trading above $12,000 for the first time in more than two months.

• The cryptocurrency traded around $12,034.70, up 2.57% over the previous 24 hours, before settling back to $11,94628, up 2.26%, at press time.
• The 24-hour price range for bitcoin: $11,672.69 - $12,047.10.
• The rally was highly anticipated by the market after the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization had a six-day streak of gains last week.
• Before breaking above $12,000, bitcoin prices had to overcome a large number of sell orders slightly below that level.
• “Bitcoin has been on a steady rise over recent weeks, driven partly by the news of Square's $50 million bitcoin buy, and perhaps more substantially because of recent comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell regarding CBDC adoption in the U.S.," Simon Peters, analyst at investment platform eToro, said in an email, referring to central bank digital currency.
• "I am encouraged that this isn't a sharp move, which is usually a function of stop-loss trades," Vishal Shah, founder of Alpha5 told CoinDesk, citing limited leverage and suppressed bitcoin futures curve. "It feels like a more genuine move."
• The last time bitcoin prices hit the $12,000 level was Aug. 17, according to data from CryptoCompare.
• As for what happens next, the market will have to wait to see how the price will react at the $12,000 level, according to Peters, adding that prices "haven't convincingly stayed above the threshold this year."
• "Before investors look to the next bull run, we need to see the price remain above $12,000 for an extended period of time," he added.
• Other coins from the CoinDesk 20 including ether, lumen, monero and dash were down between 2% and 4.9% in the past 24 hours.

UPDATE 18:15 UTC: Adds that bitcoin price retreated back below $12,000.