$100,000 is a significant milestone for bitcoin which traders had been anticipating for many years. The current uptrend has been most active since the American presidential elections, with Donald Trump’s clear win driving expectations of a crypto-friendly government. This article summarises recent on-chain data then looks briefly at the charts of BTCUSD and ETHUSD.

Bitcoin’s gains came amid a general bull run and euphoria in crypto markets, but sentiment still doesn’t seem to have reached a peak:

Net unrealised profit and loss (‘NUPL’) is now around 62%, so in the area of belief. Historically, the most favourable time for medium-term investors to take profits was at the top, above 80% NUPL, so there still seems to be some room for the price to rise. However, as NUPL rises, traders should be aware that a sharp correction becomes more likely.

Realised prices show that this is not an ideal time to buy more: the long-term realised price is now around $25,000, only about a quarter of the actual price, while the short-term figure is about $78,000. These numbers indicate the possibility of profit-taking by investors and traders who have significant unrealised profits.

Meanwhile only about 0.25% of all addresses are in loss. Overall, there’s no immediate indication of a retreat by the price back below $100,000, so sentiment and to a lesser extent monetary policy and major data such as next week’s American inflation are the main factors to watch.

Bitcoin surged past $100,000 on 5 December in a large intraday movement as sentiment continued to be positive. Participants expect a significantly more crypto-friendly environment when the new American government takes charge in January.

Based on performance within the last month, it’s unlikely that $100,000 will now become a strict level of support, rather an area. It’d be possible to see the price retreating below there before another move up. The next likely resistance is the 100% monthly Fibonacci expansion around $107,000.

With the price not currently overbought based on the slow stochastic or Bollinger Bands, the trend looks likely to continue now that upward momentum seems to have returned in strength. Traders’ main challenge remains finding suitable places for stops between premature triggering and exposure to a possibly large correction if sentiment shifts.

Like most major altcoins, Ether has followed bitcoin’s recent gains amid strongly positive sentiment and new inflows of capital. Unlike bitcoin, though, Ether still hasn’t made a new all-time high during this bull run. The price is still about 20% below November 2021’s high around $4,850.