One year ago today Bitcoin reached $10,000. It was a time of euphoria, hope and optimism. Even the earliest investors and true Bitcoin innovators struggled to believe that the once minuscule cryptocurrency had reached such a momentous price-point.

Defying belief, Bitcoin went on to continue the biggest bull-run in recent history, rallying all the way up to $20,000 in just under three weeks. One year on and Bitcoin has suffered a rough year; it fell dramatically to $5,900 February, before rallying back up twice to create a double-top at $11,800, it then swung wildly between $6,500 and $10,000 before eventually succumbing to downside pressure in November, falling to new yearly lows of $3,450.

But the feeling of optimism is slowly creeping back into the market this week. A temporary bottom seems to be in place at $3,500 and bullish news from Nasdaq and Lightning Network has seen Bitcoin rally 12% in the past 24-hours.

Bullish news in abundance

Nasdaq have partnered up with VanEck, with plans to launch Bitcoin Futures on the second-largest stock exchange in the world in the first quarter of 2019. Gabor Gurbacs, VanEck’s director of digital asset strategy, labelled the upcoming futures launch as Bitcoin futures 2.0, stating that they will use Nasdaq’s SMARTS technology to combat price manipulation, making it more appealing to regulators and institutional investors.

In other news, the Lightning Network has seen remarkable 300% growth rate since November 14th, reaching a network capacity of 450btc. The Lightning Network is seen as the next step to bringing Bitcoin and blockchain technology to the masses as it will enable incredibly fast transactions with minimal fees, allowing users to spend cryptocurrency more succinctly in the retail sector.

Where next for Bitcoin?

With much of the altcoins seemingly following Bitcoin’s lead, it’s important to see which price points can be looked at as potential targets for the ongoing rally.

If Bitcoin can close a daily candle above the $4,15o region that would mark a significant change in behaviour. It indicates that while the overall trend is most certainly down, a relief rally could come into play. Targets for this would be $4,750, $5,000 and $5,500.

However, Bitcoin is not out of the woods just yet, it is just a few hundred dollar move away from rejecting this current level, which would indicate that more action to the downside was to come, with the $3,570 level coming in as a target for short-traders.

One bullish case for Bitcoin is that it has been using the 200 exponential moving average as support on the weekly chart. The 200 EMA has not been breached on the weekly since August 2015, which acted as a catalyst for the bull-run that shocked much of the financial world.

The upcoming launch of Bakkt, Nasdaq’s Bitcoin futures ‘2.0’ and the implementation of the Lightning network will undoubtedly act as a catalyst on the bull-side, but an impending regulatory crackdown will play devil’s advocate. Needless to say, the volatility is back and it’s far more exciting to be involved in Bitcoin now as opposed to in September and October.

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