Bitcoin rebound hits $45.5K as focus switches to future support retests

Bitcoin (BTC) hit new multi-week highs above $45,000 on Feb. 8 as the largest cryptocurrency's comeback continued.

$40,000 becomes popular retest target

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching $45,500 on Bitstamp in its latest surge before consolidating.

Volatility was once again in evidence as the pair fluctuated by $1,000 on intra-hour timeframes, circling $44,800 at the time of writing.

Fears of a major correction were nonetheless left unfounded on the day, despite theories that $40,000 could see a retest next.

lol okay a couple hundred dollars lower than previous tweet but I'm back to thinking we run it back to retest 40K idk honestly listening to this space has my brain all sorts of messed up clearly not thinking clearlyeither way just keep stackingtrend is bullishadd on dips pic.twitter.com/swQXuSqDYC

As Cointelegraph reported, Bitcoin's latest moves represent a breakout of a downtrend in place since November's all-time highs.

Sparked by a similar exit from its relative strength index (RSI), BTC price action is now closing in on its yearly opening price just above $46,000.

Analyzing the fuel behind the past days' progress, on-chain analytics resource Material Indicators noted that large-volume traders were accumulating, while whales, who had bought in at prices around $38,000, were now neutral.

"Driver of the rally were orders of size $10k - $100k (green), which made up almost all of the total CVD, and evidently TWAP'ed since the bottom was in. Whales remained either flat or sold into the rips," it summarized.

In a separate development, news came Monday that U.S. regulators had approved a new form of exchange-traded fund focused on Bitcoin mining.

"Just as the move down gave no dead cat bounces or clean retests, this up move so far has given shallow dips and no clean retests, leaving sidelined capital sweating and potentially having to chase," a positive William Clemente added about the latest price performance.

XRP leads top ten altcoin gains

Altcoins meanwhile were slightly more sluggish as Bitcoin's rally stole the show.

Related: BTC price returns to $43K — 5 things to watch in Bitcoin this week

Ether (ETH), the largest altcoin by market cap, was up 2.8% in 24 hours compared to Bitcoin's 5%, with only Cardano (ADA) and XRP conspicuously outperforming the majority.

The latter saw daily gains in excess of 16%, marking a clear turnaround and paving the way for an attack on the $1 mark.

That is the strongest daily candle we have seen on XRP/BTC in 6 months. We have broken our falling wedge downtrend line and a key cluster of resistance. May have avoided the breakdown I was concerned about. Will get more confirmation in the coming days if this move is legit. $XRP pic.twitter.com/wW4GdizlZ1

ADA/USD was up 6.3% at $1.23, its highest level since Jan. 20.