Bitcoin Price Soars To New Highs; Global Markets Slump

In a time when global markets seem to be faltering, bitcoin – the controversial digital currency – surprised everyone with its new found momentum on Thursday.

Earlier this week, the trading halt in China failed to spark any major reaction in bitcoin. In fact, BTC/USD traded in a narrow range prior to Thursday.

The pair opened at 429.99 levels and rose to a high of 459.16 levels before closing at 457 levels on January 7. Today, it continued the trend and hit fresh high of $465 levels, however, seems to have lost momentum for the time being. BTC/USD trades at 456.02 levels at the time of writing.

In contrast, with rising concerns over Chinese economy, shares on major exchanges fell for a sixth straight day on Thursday and crude oil prices hit multi-year lows, Reuters reported.

The S&P 500 shed 47.17 points, or 2.37 percent, to 1,943.09 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 146.34 points, or 3.03 percent, to 4,689.43. Brent crude cut a loss of more than 6 percent to trade down 1.6 percent, while U.S. crude, down as much as 5.5 percent earlier, was down 2.3 percent.

The U.S. dollar also failed to maintain its strength against a basket of currencies. It lost 1.4 percent to $1.0929 versus the euro and 0.7 percent to the yen at 117.63.

Bitcoin was the only asset that performed well in 2015 and it seems to be continuing the trend. Bloomberg reported that Marc Faber, investor and author of the "Gloom, Boom & Doom Report," in conversation with Francine Lacqua said:

“When you talk about doom and gloom of this year 2016, I have to point out that in 2015, with the exception of people that held bitcoins, the performance of all asset classes has been poor”.

As BTC/USD has broken major resistance $436, minor trend reversal a jump till $468 is possible, according to FxWirePro. Short term trend remains bullish as long as support $424 holds. A break below this level will drag the pair to $400/$380. Overall trend reversal can be seen only below $400.