Bitcoin (BTC) continued defying expectations to retake $12,000 on July 4 as analysts increasingly compare its performance to 2017’s parabolic rise.

Market visualization courtesy of Coin360

Data from Coin360 showed BTC/USD retracing slightly to $11,680 after hitting $12,025, continuing a rebound which began on Tuesday.

Bitcoin’s behavior had surprised most earlier in the week, after a bearish move downwards to just $9,700 suddenly U-turned, mushrooming into fresh growth.

Now, charts are looking increasingly like a repeat of bitcoin’s progress in the second half of 2017, regular trader Filb Filb says.

Despite uploading what he described as a tongue-in-cheek chart, its prophecy – $14,000 – would nonetheless likely come true, he explained, noting bitcoin must first clear resistance around $12,100.

Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: Coin360

“Last couple days were a bear trap (in my opinion) and Bitcoin continues to look strong,” fellow trader and investor, Josh Rager, continued.

“Lots of buyer interest at $10k and see a move up over $12ks this coming week[.] One step at a time, will look to new yearly highs after $12k/$13k reclaimed.”

Bitcoin’s 2019 high so far resides at just over $13,800. In future, prediction models suggest, a year-end price of $21,000 would be appropriate, eclipsing the 2017 all-time high of $20,000.

Bitcoin meanwhile also continues to climb in overall market dominance, currently accounting for just under 63% of the total cryptocurrency market cap — the highest since the 2017 price peak.

The figure spells out ongoing pain for altcoin investors, with major tokens failing once again to match bitcoin’s growth performance.

Against 6% gains for BTC/USD, ethereum (ETH) remained stagnant, so far only briefly reclaiming the $300 mark.

Ether 7-day price chart. Source: Coin360

Most others in the top twenty exhibited similar flat performance or modest moves up or down of up to 2.5%.

The exception was chainlink (LINK), which shed around 10% in the 24 hours to press time.