The bitcoin price recorded a massive surge from $4,200 to nearly $4,800 within minutes, demonstrating a 20 percent gain in a short time frame.

[Editor’s note: Article updated – April 02, 2019: 06:19 GMT]

The $4,200 resistance level, which bitcoin has struggled to break out of for more than four months, was broken cleanly for the first time on early Tuesday morning, which led most technical indicators to turn and allow the dominant cryptocurrency to surge substantially.

Is the Bitcoin Bear Trend Over?

Earlier this week, economist and global markets analyst Alex Krüger said that a price movement of bitcoin above the $4,200 level will mark the end of the bear trend beginning January 2018, lasting 16 months.

“This is not a call. Not a matter of aging well or not. A break above $4,200 technically ends the bear trend that started Jan 2018. Facts don’t care about opinions. If strong selling resumes later on, that would represent a different trend,” he said.

The momentum of bitcoin from breaching the crucial $4,200 resistance level immediately led BTC to break out of $4,300, $4,400, $4,500, and to $4,800, which many analysts predict could go to as high as $5,500 in the upcoming days.

That's what no resistance looks like. Nothing but hot air above 4200. The longer the wait, the harder the break. This is what technical analysis is for. $BTC +20% in 45 minutes. — Alex Krüger (@krugermacro) April 2, 2019

On Monday, a technical analyst in the cryptocurrency market said that an $80 million sell wall was awaiting above $4,200, and buyers had to absorb $80 million to push the bitcoin price above the highly anticipated resistance level.

Once the level was broken, it triggered a short squeeze on major trading platforms, intensifying the upside movement of bitcoin.

Can Bitcoin Rise Even Further?

Several traders have said that while bitcoin could retrace slightly to the $4,200 to $4,300 range in the near-term, the $5,000 to $5,500 range is a reasonable target for BTC.

One analyst wrote that as long as bitcoin remains above the $4,000 mark in the short-term, it will be en route to recovering to previous levels.

“This is why we’ve been long on BTC the past few months and remain so bullish regardless of price action. OBV found support near $3,300 and continues to trend up. If this trend breaks then we’ll change our position,” the analyst said.

Was $3,200 the Bottom?

With bitcoin at above $4,200, all possibilities are open for the dominant cryptocurrency.

Traders foresee the asset moving past $5,000 in the medium-term, potentially by as early as July.

The multi-million dollar sell wall as well as stacked up short contracts on platforms like BitMEX accelerated the upside movement of bitcoin and there exists another big sell wall ahead of $4,800.

It is entirely possible that the next major sell wall acts as a catalyst for another strong price movement in the days to come.

“BTC analyze the screenshot above and look at the price and the $80 million wall and how it acted as fuel to push higher. Now we another massive wall still in front of us. Will we break through like the other ones or will this one reject the PA and slap us down?” an analyst explained.

Throughout the past month, industry executives in the likes of ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees and Messari CEO Ryan Selkis suggested that the bear market of crypto is coming to an end and that the asset class is maturing at a rapid rate.

As long as bitcoin remains above the crucial $4,200 level in the near-term, technical analysts foresee an extended strong price movement throughout April and perhaps most importantly, bitcoin is already on track to secure three consecutive green monthly candles.

Click here for a real-time bitcoin price chart.