Bitcoin looks to have breached $10,000

Bitcoin appears to have decisively breached $10,000 (€9,163) for the first time since September, and now traders are setting their sights on the next resistance level.

The longest surge for the digital coin since June brought it to as high as $10,481 on Wednesday. It was 1.2 per cent higher at $10,353 by mid-morning in London, heading for a sixth day of gains.

"It seems to move in clips of $1,000," Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda Corp in London, said in an interview. "So if it it holds above $10,000, then $11,000 starts to look very interesting to me."

The most-traded form of private money is frequently touted by enthusiasts as a safe haven asset, but its correlation with gold or US treasuries is poor. The current rally in fact coincides with a global equity benchmark near a record-high, and a mild decline in investment grade debt. With no underlying fundamentals to plumb, Bitcoin investors are often left studying technical trends.

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Accelerate

Trading has tended to accelerate when the token climbs toward the five-figure mark. During the February rally, trades clustered between $9,750 and $9,850. Orders then fell off as it reached $10,000 as buyers seemed to wait for evidence of fresh momentum.

“A break above $11,000 would be an even more bullish action for me than this one above $10,000,” Mr Erlam said. – Bloomberg