Bitcoin Breaks Out Of Its Doldrums After Sentiment Recovers

&l;p&g;&l;img class=&q;dam-image getty size-large wp-image-1127289325&q; src=&q;https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/dam/imageserve/1127289325/960x0.jpg?fit=scale&q; data-height=&q;640&q; data-width=&q;960&q;&g; Bitcoin climbed more than 10% after market sentiment improved.&a;nbsp;

Bitcoin prices surged today, breaking out of their previous range and surpassing $3,700 for the first time in more than two weeks.

The digital currency&a;nbsp;reached&a;nbsp;$3,702.48 at 11:55 EST, climbing roughly 10% in the space of 24 hours, CoinDesk &l;a href=&q;https://www.coindesk.com/price/bitcoin&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;bitcoin price data&l;/a&g; reveals.

At this point, the cryptocurrency had&a;nbsp;reached its highest since January 19, additional CoinDesk figures show.

Leading up to this breakout, bitcoin had been fluctuating mostly between $3,300 and $3,500 since late January.

Right around that time, a measure of the digital currency&s;s price volatility &l;a href=&q;https://www.forbes.com/sites/cbovaird/2019/01/24/bitcoin-volatility-falls-to-lowest-since-mid-november/#1274d8d56455&q;&g;fell&l;/a&g; to its lowest level in more than two months.

&l;span&g;&l;/span&g;

&l;strong&g;Strengthened Sentiment&l;/strong&g;

While several media outlets have covered today&s;s bitcoin price rally, &l;a href=&q;https://www.businessinsider.com/bitcoin-price-spikes-sharply-and-suddenly-2019-2&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;identifying&l;/a&g;&a;nbsp;a handful of potential causes, they have not spoken to the improvement in market sentiment that has taken place lately.

&l;span&g;Joshua Frank, cofounder of cryptocurrency analytics platform&a;nbsp;&l;/span&g;&l;a href=&q;https://thetie.io/&q; target=&q;_blank&q; rel=&q;nofollow noopener noreferrer&q; target=&q;_blank&q;&g;TheTIE.io&l;/a&g;, weighed in on this change, stating that:

&q;Over the past few days Bitcoin price was very steady with hourly sentiment remaining negative.&q;

&q;However, yesterday at around 12pm EST, hourly sentiment quickly moved into positive territory and continued to increase, leading the spike in Bitcoin and the general market.&q;

He added that sentiment has become &q;quite strong.&q;

The chart below helps illustrate the change:

&l;img class=&q;wp-image-2650 size-full&q; src=&q;http://blogs-images.forbes.com/cbovaird/files/2019/02/BitcoinHourlySentiment-e1549659733717.jpg?width=960&q; alt=&q;&q; data-height=&q;335&q; data-width=&q;637&q;&g; Bitcoin hourly sentiment data

It is worth noting that today&s;s rally began roughly 24 hours after hourly sentiment turned positive.

&q;Sentiment can be a predictive measure, and the higher it is, the stronger the signal, so it&s;s normal for it to precede price movement,&q; said Frank.

&q;It continued to increase leading up to and through the price spike, so it both lead and then reinforced the movement.&q;

&l;em&g;Disclosure: I own some bitcoin, bitcoin cash and ether.&a;nbsp;&l;/em&g;&l;/p&g;