Following its latest plunge to $16.1k, Bitcoin has recuperated and almost at $18k again after dwindling close to $15k, inching closer to the all-time high of around $20,000. The digital asset appears unstoppable in the last couple of weeks, climbing higher every single day with only a few retracement periods.

Nonetheless, this bull rally seems far healthier than that of 2017/18 as it is more controlled and there is currently a lot more trading volume in the market. One of the main sparks of this new run was the support of cryptocurrencies by PayPal, one of the largest payment providers in the world. 

The volatility in the cryptocurrency market is extremely high right now with some altcoins jumping up and down by more than 20% within hours. One of the most prominent examples is XRP which had a wild 163% run in the past 5 days to reach a high of $0.78.

The market capitalization of Bitcoin recently reached $353 billion for the first time ever, surpassing JPMorgan’s at $352 billion. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan has been a prominent critic and hater of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general calling them a ‘fraud’. 

Bitcoin has been outperforming pretty much almost any other asset in the market like Gold, the S&P 500, and other mainstream investment options like Commodities or US Treasuries.

What’s next for Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market?

Bitcoin was dominating the market but has lost a good chunk of its percentage from a peak of 66% on November 19 to a current low of 61.8% as other altcoins like XRP, ETH, and LTC have rallied as well. The total market capitalization of the market excluding Bitcoin has jumped by $57 billion in the past week, indicating that perhaps the ‘altseason’ is coming back as BTC’s dominance dwindles.

Bitcoin seems to be only facing one major barrier at $19,891 on Bitfinex and similar prices on other exchanges. Cracking the all-time high could be a major spark off the next FOMO wave, potentially pushing Bitcoin’s price towards $25,000.

Neither the MACD nor the RSI is as high as they were back in 2017 during the last bull rally, indicating that perhaps BTC price has a lot more room to grow despite being close to the all-time high.