According to data from CryptoCompare, at 06:20 UTC on August 1, Bitcoin broke through the $11,700 level (before reaching an intraday high of $11,740) for the first time since 30 June 2019.

This move came after Bitcoin closed July at $11,337, which is its second highest monthly close ever (after December 2017, when Bitcoin closed at $13,850).

Currently (as of 07:50 UTC on August 1), Bitcoin is trading around $11,664, up 4.58% in the past 24-hour period:

Technical Analyst “Crypto Michaël” says it is “cruncial” that Bitcoin stays above the $11,400:

Simon Dedic, co-founder of crypto-focused research firm Blockfyre, seems to be implying in the following tweet that the current rally could take Bitcoin all the way to $20,000–which would be a new all-time high (ATH) since the current ATH ($19,870) was set on 17 December 2017–in as little as a couple of weeks:

Danny Scott, CEO of UK-based Bitcoin exchange CoinCorner says that today’s move above the $11,700 level means that Bitcoin has been profitable on 98.54% of days:

Bitcoin advocate Anthony Pompliano (aka “Pomp”), Co-Founder and Partner at Morgan Creek Digital Assets, believes that macroeconomic factors are behind Bitcoin’s rally, and implies that it would be kind of foolish not to be bullish on Bitcoin in this environment:

As for Ether (ETH), the second-most valuable cryptoasset by market cap, it is currently trading around $356.53, up 4.93% in the past 24-hour period:

This means Ether has gone up 176.57% against USD in the year-to-date (YTD) period.

The two main positive catalysts for Ethereum’s rally seem to be the optimism around the upcoming launch of ETH 2.0 (which will take place either before the end of 2020 or sometime in Q1 2020, depending on whom you ask) and the continuing rapid growth of the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.

According to Defi Pulse, earlier today, the total value locked in DeFi in USD exceeded $4 billion (or 4.274 million ETH) for the first time ever:

Source: DeFi Pulse

Featured Image by “WorldSpectrum” via Pixabay.com