Bitcoin Price Hits Five-Week High Above $10,000

Bitcoin's price was quoted in five digits across cryptocurrency exchanges earlier today, but the breakout into $10,000 was short-lived.

The global average price, as calculated by CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index, clocked a high of $10,332.

Just 24 hours ago, the cryptocurrency was reeling under bearish pressures below $7,500 and prominent chart analysts were calling a deeper drop, courtesy of the so-called "Death cross" - a bearish cross of long-term moving averages.

BTC picked up a bid around $7,500 in the early U.S. trading hours on Friday and rose to $8,800 at 17:20 UTC. Prices then consolidated in the narrow range of $8,500 to $8,700 for a few hours, before printing highs above $10,000 earlier today.

Further, the rise from lows below $7,400 to highs above $10,300 is reportedly the third-largest 24-hour price gain in bitcoin's history, as pointed out by crypto-asset analyst Yassine Elmandjra.

Some observers are worried that the market optimism is premature, as China is developing a digital version of its own currency and is unlikely to lift its ban on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin's convincing move above $8,352 has invalidated the bearish lower highs setup.

The cryptocurrency is yet to exit the falling channel, represented by trendlines connecting June 26 and Aug. 6 highs and July 17 and Sept. 26 lows.

A UTC close above the upper edge of the bearish channel, currently at $9,750, would imply a resumption of the rally from lows near $4,100 seen on April 2 and put the cryptocurrency on the path to re-test of the high of $13,880 hit in June.

Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.