Bitcoin rose higher Monday as pro-cryptocurrency Paul Atkins was sworn in as the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

What Happened: The apex cryptocurrency touched an intraday high of $88,821.47 after crossing $87,000 the day before, as investors cheered the breakout following weeks of sideways price action. 

The excitement was reflected through a 98% jump in trading volumes to $38.64 billion.

The uptick, however, failed to lift Ethereum out of the doldrums, as the second-largest cryptocurrency fell below $1,600.

Bitcoin's dominance reached 63.7%, signaling continued rotation of capital from altcoins to the leading digital asset.

The sentiment may have been bolstered overnight by news of Atkins’ swearing-in as the 34th SEC Chair. Atkins had previously stated that building a regulatory framework for digital assets would be his top priority.

Total liquidations reached $270 million in the last 24 hours, with nearly equal number of bullish and bearish bets erased.

Bitcoin’s Open Interest rose 3.06% in the last 24 hours, representing an increase of $3.52 billion. That said, nearly 59% of Binance traders with an open BTC position were positioned short.

The market sentiment improved from “Fear” to "Neutral," according to the Crypto Fear and Greed Index.

Top Gainers (24-Hours)

The global cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $2.74 trillion, following an increase of 0.76% in the last 24 hours.

Major stock averages ended the session in the red.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 971.82 points, or 2.48%, to end at 38,170.41. The S&P 500 lost 2.36% to close at 5,158.20, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite finished 2.55% lower at 15,870.90.

The sell-offs came after President Donald Trump intensified his attack on Fed Chair Jerome Powell, accusing him of prior political favoritism and calling for “preemptive” interest rate cuts.

Meanwhile, gold surged to a record high above $3,400 per ounce, reflecting a 0.23% increase from the previous day.

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Analyst Notes: CryptoQuant’s Head of Research, Julio Moreno, identified $91,000-$92,000 as a potential Bitcoin resistance level, which corresponded to the Trader’s On-chain Realized Price.

"The trader’s realized price acts as support when market conditions are bullish (green area, bull score >= 60), and as resistance when market conditions are bearish (red area, bull score <= 40)," Moreno explained.

Widely followed cryptocurrency analyst Rekt Capital commented on Bitcoin's breakout, stating that the "multi-month downtrend" was over.

"And when a technical downtrend is broken… technical uptrends emerge," Rekt Capital added.

Photo Courtesy: Bukhta Yurii on Shutterstock.com

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