Bitcoin Price Rebounds After Testing Lower Support Near $44K as Ether Booms

The price of bitcoin rose by $500 on a four-hour basis Wednesday after testing lower support near $44,000 during Asia's late morning trading hours.

The rebound from 24-hour lows of $44,248 follows a period of profit-taking on Tuesday on the back of short-term fatigue, as CoinDesk reported. Bitcoin is currently changing hands at around $45,000 and is down 2.9% from a 24-hour high of $47,157, CoinDesk data show.

Bitcoin continues to cool upon multiple attempts at $50,000, evoking moments of price action gone by, though that may be less of a concern now given demand from bigger players, according to some market participants.

"In comparison to the bull runs in 2017 and 2018, the current movement takes a more mature trend," said Cynthia Wu, head of sales at Singapore-based digital asset services firm Matrixport. "The market landscape has become much more institutionalized – where now you have proprietary traders in crypto hedge funds, crypto-offerings from foreign exchange brokers and institutions ... that are transacting on an institutional scale."

The price trend for bitcoin and the fusion of retail and institutional interest are signs that the search for yield by investors, big or small, has extended into crypto and "will be around for good," Wu added.

Bitcoin's daily price action remains relatively flat with the weight of the previously discussed 200-day moving average bearing down on prices near $45,500, a sign that further selling pressure could be lurking around the corner.

Meanwhile, the altcoin market continues to hold firm with most in the top 20 coins by market cap remaining in the green over the past seven days.

“Overall, the markets have seen a positive trend continue this week; altcoins are up while bitcoin has coasted flat," said Byron Goldberg, Australian country manager at crypto exchange Luno. "Interestingly, we are seeing ether slightly outperform bitcoin week-on-week."

Over a 30-day period, ether is up 67.6%, compared with bitcoin's 46.3% rise during the same period, Messari data shows.

Goldberg points to Ethereum's London hard fork as the likely catalyst for driving prices higher.

Indeed, futures premium on ether stands at 7.36%, compared with bitcoin's meagre 2.8%, meaning the crypto markets are likely anticipating ether to rise further than bitcoin over the next three months with a shift in institutional interest, Goldberg added.

All major cryptos in the top 20 posted results in the red over a 24-hour period by press time. Dogecoin shed the most, while uniswap and chainlink followed close behind.

Read more: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Buyers Could Take Profits as Volume Declines