Bitcoin Tops $54K, May Run Towards $58K as Crypto Rally Resumes

• Bitcoin topped $54,000 Monday, breaking through a key resistance level that capped prices since mid-February.
• SOL, MATIC, ATOM led altcoin gains, while crypto-focused stocks Coinbase, MicroStrategy, Marathon Holdings and Riot Platforms booked double-digit advances.
• Bitcoin's next short-term target is $57,000-58,000, Swissblock said.

Bitcoin (BTC) topped $54,000 on Monday surging to its highest price since November 2021, leaving past its recent sideways range as the crypto rally suddenly resumed.

The largest crypto by market cap broke through its major resistance level at $53,000 during mid-morning U.S. trading hours, which halted price rallies over the past two weeks, and quickly ran just shy of $55,000 by afternoon hours before slightly retraced, CoinDesk data shows. At press time, BTC was changing hands at $54,400, up nearly 5% over the past 24 hours. It outperformed the broad-market CoinDesk20 Index (CD20), which advanced 4%, topping the 2,000 level for the first time.

Ether (ETH), the second-largest crypto asset, also rose nearly 4%, hitting a fresh 22-month high of $3,200.

Read more: Ether's Bitcoin Beating Rally Not Just Because of Potential ETF Approval: Bernstein

Solana's native token (SOL), Polygon's MATIC and Cosmos' ATOM led gains among major cryptocurrencies in the CD20 index, with 5%-7% advances.

The crypto rally also lifted digital asset-focused stocks. Shares of crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) and the Michael Saylor-helmed MicroStrategy (MSTR) both gained 17% during the day. Large-cap bitcoin miners Marathon Digital (MARA) and Riot Platforms (RIOT) booked 22% and 15% gains, respectively.

Bitcoin targets $58,000

While some market observers anticipated that bitcoin could correct to $48,000 as it stalled, Monday's bounce was a decisive breakthrough of one of the last historically important resistance levels before record highs.

"BTC now seems to finally break out from the range it has been in since Feb. 15," crypto analytics firm Swissblock said in a Telegram market update Monday. "The momentum is moving up strongly. All sails are set."

Swissblock analysts added that the next level for bitcoin's price target is the $57,000-$58,000 range, with new all-time highs in sight after that.

The move was also coupled with an uptick in bitcoin's price premium on Coinbase compared to other exchanges, suggesting demand coming from U.S. investors.

U.S.-listed spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) also experienced heavy trading interest, with BlackRock's IBIT booking its largest daily trading volume since its debut, TradingView data shows. However, ETF trading volumes do not always translate to inflows for the funds, an NYDIG report pointed out.

UPDATE (Feb. 26, 20:41 UTC): Updates prices. Adds performance of altcoins, crypto stocks, bitcoin ETF trading volume data.