Bitcoin rose more than 1% during Monday’s Asian trading session, positioning itself for a five-day winning streak, the longest since early October.
The leading cryptocurrency by market value rose from around $91,480 to $92,500, according to CoinDesk data. At one point, prices were over $93,000. Top alternative cryptocurrencies such as Solana and ether jumped from 0.7% to 1%. The CoinDesk 20 and CoinDesk 80 indexes rose 1.5%, reflecting broader market appreciation.
“Market sentiment is improving with Bitcoin and Ethereum moving into uptrend regimes,” Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, who was recently voted top crypto analyst, said in a Telegram message to CoinDesk.
“We became constructive after options expired in late December, anticipating that tax-loss selling would decline and trading desks would regain the flexibility to deploy risk in the new year,” Thielen added.
Bitcoin and the broader crypto market remained mostly depressed through December, with U.S.-based holders believed to have liquidated their holdings at a loss to offset capital gains and reduce overall tax liability. Investors intentionally make losses on underperforming assets in order to reduce the tax owed on profitable sales.
Bitcoin underperformed the Nasdaq, gold and other precious metals through 2025, ending the year with a 6% loss. Performance was particularly weak during North American trading hours in the final weeks of the year.
Bitcoin’s latest rise coincides with renewed geopolitical tension following the United States’ capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. This rise is increasingly seen as a sign that cryptocurrencies are attracting safe-haven demand.
“We view the simultaneous rise in multiple asset classes following U.S. military action in Venezuela as a flight to quality. Safe havens such as gold and silver are rallying strongly as investors price in elevated geopolitical risk that could persist or intensify,” Ryan Lee, chief analyst at cryptocurrency exchange Bitget, said in an email.
“Oil, for now, remains relatively contained around the $60 per barrel level, which helps limit immediate inflationary pressures, but markets are clearly ignoring the risk of future energy disruptions and tighter liquidity conditions that could force the Federal Reserve to keep rates high for longer,” Lee added.
Looking ahead, the bias remains bullish while BTC price holds above the 21-day exponential moving average, according to Thielen.
“Early ETF inflows have been encouraging, and as long as Bitcoin holds above its 21-day moving average, the short-term bias remains tilted to the upside,” Thielen said.
The 11 Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) brought in more than $471 million on Friday, the largest single-day total since Nov. 11, according to data source SoSoValue.
