The curious case of Bitcoin’s baffling 2019 rally and its effects on altcoins

Some believe that Bitcoin’s bull rally began in April 2019, while others believe that it hasn’t and are unsure. What is certain however is the fact that Bitcoin has been on a positive rally for the fifth month in a row, since the start of 2019.

At the time of writing, July’s monthly candle was green. However, 3 more weeks remain for it to close and much can change in those upcoming weeks. Further, Bitcoin is only 33% away from reaching its 2017-highs. The interesting thing about the five positive months [February-June 2019] in a row is that it was last witnessed between April – June 2017, and only during the rally of 2013, from April-September.

As seen in the table above, the total percentage return for BTC in the aforementioned time frames for 2013, 2016, 2017, and 2019 was 103.44%, 66.36%, 185.2%, and 135.87%, respectively.

The rally that took place on April 2, 2019 was startling, as there were no supporting theories as to why the rally began. Some say that it started out as an April fool’s day joke, while others think it was a mystery buyer from the East who set off this bull run; nobody knows for sure. Further, Google trends for the keyword ‘Bitcoin’ are not exactly corroborating the sudden rally, as it did during the 2017 bull rally, which makes it all the more interesting and baffling.

Moreover, Bitcoin’s dominance has crossed an important resistance level of 66.39% and was at 67.67%, at press time, which is higher than the dominance last seen during the euphoric phase of Bitcoin’s 2017 rally. As dominance approaches higher levels that haven’t been seen for more than two years, the only logical explanation for the rally seems to be a surge in institutional adoption and growing awareness from the retail side.

The effect of the sudden rise in Bitcoin’s price and its dominance can be witnessed in the price of altcoins, which are bleeding red. Not only have the prices fallen, but they have broken crucial support levels that have been holding strong since the end of 2017. The altcoins found respite when Bitcoin topped on Jun 26 and surged briefly by a meager amount, but it was ephemeral as Bitcoin’s rally resumed by the end of the first week of July 2019.

Will Bitcoin continue to soar higher and cause alts to die out, proving Peter Brandt and others right in saying that altcoins will crash and burn and only a few will survive during the next rally of Bitcoin? Or Will Bitcoin see levels below $7,000 or even $5,000, like Tone Vays has been saying?