Dado Ruvic | Reuters
The price of bitcoin broke past $46,000 Monday morning after a high stakes weekend for the crypto industry as the Senate continued debating the details of its part in the still yet-to-be-passed infrastructure bill.
Bitcoin traded as high as $46,050.61. That marks its highest level since May 16, when it hit a high of $49,770.33, according to Coin Metrics. It last traded at $45,683, about 4.5% up on the day. The price of ether also broke through $3,000 over the weekend for the first time since May.
On Sunday night, the Senate further delayed the vote on the infrastructure bill to Tuesday to allow for more time to debate what has become two competing amendments to a cryptocurrency tax provision, which was initially included in the bill as a pay-for to help the government raise some $28 million for the infrastructure. It’s likely that’s increasing optimism among traders that cooler heads prevail, said D.A. Davidson’s Chris Brendler.
The bitcoin community has made more than 35,000 calls to lawmakers and beefed up its lobbying efforts in the past few days. Notable community figures including Square CEO Jack Dorsey, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong (as well as surprise crypto advocates like rock icon Gene Simmons) have spoken up on social media urging lawmakers to avoid stifling innovation.
Bitcoin hovered in the $30,000 range for weeks after it fell from its May highs and has been climbing back up since the end of July.
It has cleared three tiers of resistance in the past three weeks, including the 50-day moving average, the cloud model and, as of today, the 200-day moving average, according to Fairlead Strategies.
“The minor breakouts reflect positive short-term momentum and improved intermediate-term momentum following July’s successful test of support near $30,000,” said Fairlead’s Katie Stockton. “The next hurdle on the chart is just above $51,000, which seems in store for a test given no signs of upside exhaustion at this time.”
