Bitcoin surged $1,000 in just 30 minutes during U.S. trading hours Thursday, a move that found the leading cryptocurrency rising from $9,335 to a high of $10,400, based on Bitstamp data.

The sudden rally could be associated with the massive unwinding of short BTC/USD positions (profit taking) seen in 30 minutes to 15:00 UTC, as reported by bot powered twitter handle @WhaleCalls.

Prices had dropped to a low of $9,280 at 14:00 UTC, having repeatedly failed to beat the psychological resistance of $10,000 in the Asian session and during early European trading hours. But, bitcoin’s price rise is now boding well for the broader market.

Names like litecoin and bitcoin SV are reporting double-digit gains at press time. Meanwhile, ethereum’s ETH token and XRP are up 6 percent and 3 percent, respectively.

Bitcoin’s dominance rate, the top cryptocurrency’s share of total market cap, has also risen to 65.8 percent from 65.4 percent seen earlier today, according to CoinMarketCap.

Looking forward

With the sudden move above $10,000, the prospects of bitcoin breaching the former resistance-turned-support of $9,097 (May 30 high) have weakened. That said, the bulls are not out of the woods yet and a break above $11,080 is needed to invalidate the bearish case.

A high-volume break above $11,080 would violate the bearish lower highs pattern and shift risk in favor of a rise to $12,000. Notably, the move above $10,000 is backed by a rise in buying volumes (green bar). Hence, prices could rise to $11,080 in the next 24 hours.

As of writing, BTC is changing hands at $10,400 on Bitstamp, representing 5 percent gains on a 24-hour basis.

Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.

Price chart via Shutterstock; charts by Trading View