Crypto-currency market jumps 10%, bitcoin nears $25,000, BLUR token volume hits $1 billion

Late Wednesday, February 15, the crypto-currency market surprised with a strong 10% jump adding more than $100 billion to investors’ wealth in a matter of hours. The world’s largest crypto asset, bitcoin (BTC), is currently trading 11.5% higher at a price of $24,700 and a market capitalization of $476 billion. With yesterday’s price pump, the price of BTC hit a new 6-month high while completely catching the bear off guard.

Bitcoin and the crypto-currency market in general

This is the first time since August 14, 2022 that BTC has traded above the $24,200 level. Any sign of an increase in whale addresses could further increase confidence among traders.

📈 #Bitcoin is up to $22.9k, and it saw a nice isolated price pump approximately 6 hours ago that pushed it ahead of most of the #altcoin pack. January was the time of #alt recoveries, so keep an eye on whales; trading volume shifting over to $BTC. 👀 https://t.co/xOGLc1hZhW pic.twitter.com/hIxI5Iqv96

– Santiment (@santimentfeed) February 15, 2023

Interestingly, Bitcoin (BTC) is outperforming all other altcoins in the top league in terms of percentage gains. Since the beginning of 2023, altcoins have held a dominant position over Bitcoin by gaining up to 50-70%. Blockchain data provider Santiment reported that there is a possibility that whales and trading volumes will shift back to Bitcoin. He noted:

Bitcoin is up to $22.9K, and it had a nice isolated price pump about 6 hours ago that pushed it ahead of most altcoins. January has been the recovery period for altcoins, so keep an eye on the whales and the trading volume moving towards $BTC.

The recent price rally markets 50% year-to-date gains for bitcoin investors. Cici Lu, founder of Venn Link Partners, a blockchain advisor, told Bloomberg, “People forget that bitcoin’s trading range can sometimes be limited, and when short positions are crushed, the price explodes.“In the past 24 hours, nearly $85 million in BTC short positions have been liquidated.

BLUR is experiencing huge trading volumes

Like bitcoin, altcoins prices also rose on Wednesday, February 15. Ethereum (ETH), the world’s second-largest crypto-currency, is currently trading at a price of $1,686, up 9 percent. For now, ETH is facing immediate resistance at $1,700.

Other altcoins have also posted significant gains. Binance coin (BNB) is up 7%, XRP is up 4%, Cardano (ADA) is up 5% and Polygon’s MATIC is up 10.14%. Whales are building up their MATIC reserves in large numbers. In the past month, the Whales have added more than 55 million MATIC pieces so far.

Whales are still bullish on #Polygon! 🐋💰

On-chain data from @santimentfeed shows that large holders of 10-100 million $MATIC have bought 55 million #MATIC since January 16, totaling ~$60 million. pic.twitter.com/gk2Ce0xyDO

– Ali (@ali_charts) February 15, 2023

On the other hand, BLUR – the native token of the Blur NFT marketplace – saw huge volumes on the first day of trading. The 24-hour trading volume for BLUR tokens reached nearly $1 billion.

After dropping 85% at launch, the BLUR token is once again on an upward trajectory. At press time, BLUR is trading at a price of $1.13, up 50.36%.