Bitcoin hits two-month high, trades above $19,000 following December inflation data

Digital assets are flashing signs of a potential short-term price recovery following a breakdown in the market last year and more than two months of subsequent sell-side pressure.

Bellwether crypto bitcoin is now at its “greediest” point in four months, according to the Bitcoin & Crypto Fear and Greed Index by research site BTC Tools. Other related indexes place that greed sentiment at two-month highs.

The crypto was last seen changing hands for around $18,830 after briefly reaching an intra-day peak above $19,100 on Thursday, exchange data show. That marked the first time it had traded beyond that point since Nov. 8 — the FTX breakdown. Bullish traders are now hoping for a strong daily close above $19,000 to validate a continuation of bullish price action.

Bitcoin and, by extension, digital assets have hit a peak of 66 out of 100 on BTC Tools’ index — the highest recording since September 13, 2022.  The index is a measure of four metrics including trade volume, open interest, social media sentiment and search data via Google and Bing.

Over the past several days, however, bitcoin has rallied as risky assets — including cryptocurrencies and some meme stocks — have found a bid in markets.

Ethereum has also begun flashing signs of increased activity on-chain. The world’s second-largest crypto by market capitalization achieved a major milestone late Friday, with the number of daily validators exceeding 500,000.

Validators are essential in guaranteeing the integrity and security of the Ethereum network — more is generally a positive sign for the Ethereum ecosystem, as the economic stake securing the network now tops $22 billion.

The ETH-BTC ratio is once again exploring the top side of its long-term range, around 0.075 BTC per ETH. It’s most recent significant peak was just prior to the Merge in September, when ETH briefly hit 0.085. The downstream effects of the Merge on ether inflation have some analysts expecting the ether market cap to “flip” bitcoin’s in 2023.

After announcing layoffs of 950 workers Tuesday, shares of Coinbase Global (COIN), the largest U.S. based crypto exchange, rose more than 8% on Thursday.

The total market capitalization for crypto assets has risen by more than $40 billion in recent days to climb back above $900 billion. At the start of 2022, the total market capitalization for crypto assets stood at more than $2 trillion.