BTC gains 15% in 3 hours amid tight squeeze

Bitcoin has quickly surged to test resistance at $40,000 for the first time this month.

The price of Bitcoin has surged more than 10% over just a few hours earlier today, with prices quickly surging from roughly $35,000 to tag just shy of $40,000 on July 26.

Price action shows a violent short squeeze that occurred as prices broke above $35,000, with bullish momentum suddenly accelerating as prices quickly rallied 15% from roughly $34,000 to $39,800 over the course of fewer than three hours.

And folks, we have our squeeze. https://t.co/Lflcp7MZuw

— Willy Woo (@woonomic) July 26, 2021

By contrast, BTC had taken the past five days to gain from roughly $30,000 to $34,000. As of this writing, Bitcoin is changing hands for roughly $38,500.

According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin is the top gainer for the past 24 hours among the top 30 crypto assets by capitalization, posting a gain of nearly 13%.

The sudden rally has seen numerous technical indicators return to offering bullish signals, popular analyst, Lark Davis, informing his 426,000 followers that BTC’s price is again trending above its 50-day moving average.

Oooohhhh….. #bitcoin just reclaimed the 50 day moving average! Nice! pic.twitter.com/xpS3kiUV16

— Lark Davis (@TheCryptoLark) July 26, 2021

Polkadot and Chainlink are also among the day’s top gainers, each having increased by more than 11% in the past 24 hours.

With Dogecoin up less than 9% for the day, it would appear the impact of Elon Musk’s Twitter account on the meme-coin’s markets is beginning to wane, with Tesla’s CEO posting a meme asserting that “Dogecoin is money” on July 25.

Despite Musk’s efforts, Dogecoin appears to have moved in lock-step with the broader altcoin markets, with most large-cap crypto assets having posted high single-digit gains for the day.

#bitcoin is money

— Jay_OKEX_CEO (@JayHao8) July 25, 2021

Related: Bitcoin price hints at ‘megaphone’ bottom pattern, and a breakout toward $40K

Despite next month’s fast-approaching London upgrades for Ethereum, Ether is also lagging behind the pack, posting a gain of roughly 7% for the past 24 hours. 

As such, ETH is the weakest-performing cryptocurrency ranked among the top 10 by capitalization for the past day.