First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Climbs Back Above $59K, but Rally Could Be Short-Lived

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Bitcoin rallied to over $59,000 early in the European morning, extending a recovery from below $54,000 at the start of the week. The rally could see BTC reclaim $60,000 but will be short-lived, Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, said. "The $55,000-$56,000 range is forming a base from a technical analysis perspective. However, given the medium-term technical damage, we anticipate no more than a short-term tactical bullish countertrend rally," Thielen wrote on Tuesday. At the time of writing, bitcoin was trading at just under $58,500, an increase of 1.7% in the last 24 hours. The broader digital asset market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 Index, rose about 1.65%.

Data availability blockchain network Celestia's native cryptocurrency, TIA, has jumped 25% to $7.30 this week, the biggest gain among the top 100 digital assets by market value. Traders seem skeptical about the surge and are taking bearish bets by shorting perpetual futures tied to the cryptocurrency, according to funding rates tracked by CoinGlass. Average funding rates across exchanges flipped negative over the weekend and have dropped to -0.1231% since then, reaching levels last seen in January. In other words, the bias for bearish bets is most pronounced in six months.

Bitcoin miners are attractive partners to help build AI data centers due to their available power supplies and operating capabilities, broker Bernstein said in a research report on Tuesday. Recent AI deals including Core Scientific’s (CORZ) 12-year agreement with CoreWeave and Coatue Management’s $150 million investment in Hut 8 (HUT) have become key catalysts for the sector, the report said. Bernstein initiated coverage of miner Iris Energy (IREN) with an outperform rating and a $26 price target. The broker also initiated coverage of Core Scientific with an outperform rating and a $17 objective. CORZ and IREN were up around 3.5 and 6.5% respectively in pre-market trading.

- Omkar Godbole