First Mover Americas: Bitcoin at $100K Sounds Nice, but Expect Pullback

Bitcoin topped $98,000 heading into the U.S. morning, extending its breakout from an eight-month consolidation since crypto-friendly Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency. The largest crypto has advanced 4.5% over the past 24 hours, leaving the broad-market CoinDesk 20 Index behind. Some altcoins are quickly catching up to BTC’s gain, with ether (ETH), Chainlink (LINK) and Uniswap (UNI) surging 5% in the past hour. The $100,000-per-BTC mark is just a stone’s throw away and BTC futures on Deribit maturing next year are already trading above the threshold. Still, the round-number level might pose a barrier at least in the short term as investors take some profits after a 40% rally in only two weeks. “If BTC breaks through $100K, there is a high probability of a pullback,” Gracy Chen, CEO at crypto exchange Bitget, said in a note. It’s a “psychological barrier where investors might reassess their positions, leading to a natural sell-off point, as seen in other asset classes when significant round numbers are breached.”