After A Major Step, Bitcoin Price Touches 3 Weeks High

Bitcoin rose to a three-week high as cryptocurrencies moved with major stock market indices. Bitcoin rose to $42,673, up 4.1% within the previous 24 hours.The price of the largest cryptocurrency by market value touched $43,337 earlier Tuesday, the highest point since 3 March.

Bitcoin’s price is, broadly, moving in line with the major indices. Crypto Twitter has been forecasting an upwards movement based on a combination of technical analysis and certain fundamentals, but it’s too early to say whether this is a sustained rally.

Bitcoin trading volume is around 30,000 BTC in the past 24 hours, a low point compared to the past month. As $BTC soars to $42,000, more than 15,000 BTC in outflows from exchanges were spotted yesterday.

The last time the most famous crypto asset experienced a large outflow, it was followed by a significant rise in price. The bitcoin market took a hit briefly on Monday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled in a speech that the US central bank might raise the benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point at certain meetings over the rest of the year. Powell also said that officials are ready to “slow the market” to bring down the inflation.

However, the market bounced back aggressively Tuesday despite the Fed’s hawkish stance. Equity markets also went up. Nasdaq was up 1.7% and the S&P 500 was up 1%. Bitcoin outflows from exchanges are often seen as a sign that traders are not looking for a quick sale, so they might be moving the coins into long-term custody or storage options. An elevated rate outflows is typically seen as bullish.


Cryptocurrency has boomed in recent years but vast electricity usage required to power transactions remains major cause of climate concern. A stealth rally in cryptocurrencies is currently underway. Investors can’t be faulted for having missed an 8% breakout in Bitcoin over the past week; a string of listless daily moves by the digital coin camouflaged a big upward swing that’s happened just as US stocks are also attempting to emerge from a recent downturn.

Elsewhere in cryptocurrency markets, ether (ETH) was up 2.14% over the past 24 hours and solana (SOL) was up 4.35%.

Bitcoin Take a Major Step With Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs on Monday took a big step toward the possible wide adoption of bitcoin among institutional investors, such as hedge and pension funds.

A step that will undoubtedly reassure some big investors, many of whom are still very reluctant to invest in cryptocurrencies and in particular in bitcoin, the first digital currency in terms of market share.

Goldman Sachs announced that it has just carried out its first over-the-counter (OTC) crypto options trade. The firm traded a bitcoin-linked instrument called a non-deliverable bitcoin option (NDO), which is a derivative tied to bitcoin’s price that pays out in cash, Goldman Sachs said.

Options are used by crypto investors to hedge risks or boost yields, and over-the-counter transactions are larger trades negotiated privately.

“We are pleased to have executed our first cash-settled crypto currency options trade with Galaxy,” said Max Minton, Asia Pacific head of digital assets for Goldman Sachs. “This is an important development in our digital assets capabilities and for the broader evolution of the asset class”.

The transaction carried out by Goldman Sachs was facilitated by Galaxy Digital, a company that invests in crypto and especially in bitcoin.

Galaxy, a global provider of blockchain and cryptocurrency financial services for institutions, was founded and is run by billionaire Mike Novogratz, a bitcoin evangelist. Novogratz is also a former Goldman Sachs banker.

This marks the first OTC crypto transaction by a major bank in the U.S., as Goldman Sachs continues expanding its cryptocurrency offerings, demonstrating the continued maturation and adoption of digital assets by banking institutions,” Galaxy said in a statement.

This move is an important step in the development of the crypto market for large investors, because OTCs mean that Goldman Sachs will act as a principal in the transaction.

It is therefore a kind of expansion of Goldman Sachs’ activities into cryptocurrencies, but more importantly, it legitimizes the currencies as stable enough to be vouched for by large financial institutions.