Strong fundamental catalysts are abound for benchmark cryptocurrency bitcoin (BTC) at the moment.
In the political sphere, incoming US president Donald Trump has already pushed ahead with his pledge to appoint a raft of pro-crypto candidates to influential positions.
Chief among these appointments is David Sacks, the former PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) chief operating officer, who will take on the role of ‘White House A.I. & Crypto Czar’.
Mainstream bitcoin adoption is also continuing apace, with spot-bitcoin exchange-traded funds now accounting for nearly $34 billion of bitcoin’s circulating supply.
Although there’s no telling what bitcoin’s future in 2025 looks like, technical analysis of the BTC/USD pair’s moving averages suggests that bitcoin’s near-term rally might have some gas left in the tank.
Moving averages (MAs) compile historical price data to read the tea leaves and predict future price movements.
They smooth out price fluctuations over time to give a rough idea of how the stock, or in this case digital currency, is trending.
Though they’re far from an exact science, moving averages are regularly used to set buy and sell orders on the market.
The golden cross
Casting our minds back to 27 October, BTC/USD performed one of the most legendary of chart movements- the classic golden cross.
A golden cross occurs when a 50-day MA crosses above the 200-day MA, as bitcoin did on this day.
Golden crosses are commonly interpreted as a bullish trend and a key event for traders to consider entering a long position.
Traders who did buy bitcoin on 27 October (aka golden cross day) were handsomely rewarded- five weeks later bitcoin smashed through $100,000 for the first time ever and topped out at more than $104,000 on 5 December.
While bitcoin has since crawled back towards the $97,000 price point, it is possible that this latest golden cross rally isn’t over yet.
Once a golden cross rally taps out, a death cross follows as the 50-day MA falls below the 200-day MA.
Only six weeks have passed since bitcoin’s last golden cross, but history shows the trend lasts considerably longer.
The golden cross in October 2023, for instance, lasted for 10 months before the death cross.
Meanwhile, the golden cross in May 2020 lasted for 11 months.
Couple that with the fact that bitcoin typically has a strong December, and there are some strong technical indicators for the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
Of course, technical analysis is closer to financial astrology than anything based in fact,l so keep that in mind when plotting your course of action.
The BTC/USD pair was swapping for around $97,600 at the time of writing.
Bitcoin’s 50-day MA is currently above the 200-day MA – Source: Binance