Bitcoin hit a new high in the process of breaking through $15,000, and investors may have overlooked the rise of Ethereum in 2020. As of 21:00 UTC (4 pm Eastern Time), the trading price of Bitcoin (BTC) is approximately US$15087. It has increased by 7.7% in the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $14,005-$15,306. BTC is above its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, which is a bullish signal for market technicians.

According to CoinDesk 20 data, the price of Bitcoin jumped on Thursday, reaching $15,306 at 15:50 UTC (10:50 AM Eastern Time), reaching the highest price point since January 8th, 2018. The high point of Bitcoin is $15,360. It has been falling since then, closing at $15087 at press time.

On Thursday, the leading USD/Bitcoin spot exchanges had strong trading volumes. As of press time, this is US$1,233,248,261, which is the highest level since October 21, when trading volume reached US$1,273,812,127. Analysts still believe that in the long run, Bitcoin is an asset to bet on in uncertain times. Although most markets rose with cryptocurrencies on Thursday, The U.S. dollar index (which measures the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar to a basket of other fiat currencies) was 0.88% in red on Thursday at press time, down 1.6% since early November.

In the futures market, with the capital injection of institutional investors, the open interest of Bitcoin contracts returned to 5.4 billion U.S. dollars, and CME’s 804 million U.S. dollars ranked third among all trading venues. The increase in interest is a signal that large players are using hedging and targeted positions as part of a certain Bitcoin strategy.

Ether outperforms Bitcoin

Ether (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, rose on Thursday, trading at approximately $414, up 3.4% within 24 hours as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 pm Eastern Time). Bitcoin promoters like to talk about its price increase in 2020 as a way to deal with the uncertain global economy. However, so far this year, the performance of Ethereum has even surpassed that of Bitcoin, with an increase of 210%, while Bitcoin’s increase is 95%.

John Willock, CEO of Tritum, a cryptocurrency liquidity provider, said that investors like the potential of Ether, which can be used to hedge and bet on the future of finance.