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On Easter Monday, while many parts of the world were enjoying a day off, Bitcoin (BTC) appeared to be on track to reach a new milestone above $30,000.

Just three weeks ago, the leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization hinted at breaking the threshold, and today it reached a high of $29,744 in the afternoon, its highest level since early June. This surge in investor optimism has propelled the cryptocurrency forward, but the specific reason for the move is unclear. As of now, it is trading at $29,616.

Between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. ET (14:00-15:00 UTC), the price of bitcoin surged by almost 4%. It had remained around $28,000 since mid-March, when concerns regarding the traditional banking system started to dissipate.

“There isn't a clear catalyst for this spike,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst for foreign exchange market maker Oanda, wrote in an email to CoinDesk, although he said that the surge might stem partly from “buying from crypto traders voicing frustration on social media over a one-sided New York Times article that took issue over [bitcoin's] energy consumption.”

Moya also noted that the move higher “occurred around the release of news that Federal Home Loan Bank debt issuance had lessened, signaling that “the banking crisis was easing.”

Ether (ETH) experienced a surge, surpassing the $1,900 mark before pulling back. At present, it has shown a 1.7% increase compared to its value 24 hours ago. The other primary cryptocurrencies also displayed positive movements, albeit to a lesser extent. ARB, the digital token of Arbitrum's layer 2 blockchain, experienced a recent increase of over 2.8%, while XRP rose by approximately 1%. The CoinDesk Market Index, which serves as an indicator of the overall performance of the cryptocurrency market, has recently risen by 2.3%.

The equity indexes ended the day mostly unchanged, with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average experiencing slight gains of a few percentage points, while the technology-focused Nasdaq Composite saw a slight decline of 0.03%. However, it was a notable day for stocks related to cryptocurrency, as both the crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) and the corporate bitcoin vault MicroStrategy (MSTR) saw impressive increases of over 7.5%.

This week, markets will be closely watching the March Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for any indications that the downward trend of inflation observed recently is continuing.

Bitcoin saw a surge past $26,000 on March 14th after a report showed that inflation in the United States had slowed to 0.4% in February from 0.5% the previous month, with the yearly basis also dropping to 6% from 6.4% in the previous month.

If the slowdown persists, central bankers may be encouraged to ease up on their aggressive interest rate hikes that have been in place for a year. It remains unclear how this would affect Bitcoin. However, after recent bank failures in the United States, which raised concerns about the traditional financial system, the cryptocurrency appeared to gain momentum as investors turned to assets that hold their value during both prosperous and difficult times.

Investors will be considering the initial round of quarterly earnings from banking behemoths JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup, all of which are scheduled to release their results. Analysts anticipate a predominantly gloomy quarter, especially for the financial services industry which has been hit hard.

“BTC is also being seen as a reliable store of value that lacks the issues that come with storing your money by way of a third-party intermediary, or a bank,” Richard Mico, the U.S. CEO and chief legal officer of Banxa, a payment-and-compliance infrastructure provider to the crypto industry, wrote in an email to CoinDesk. “This is further supported by the decreasing correlation with the equity markets since 2021 – BTC is now properly starting to be perceived as a risk-off asset.”

Joe DiPasquale, CEO of BitBull Capital, expressed cautious optimism regarding the longevity of Monday's Bitcoin rally.

“Bitcoin is likely to find resistance at $30,000,” DiPasquale noted in an email to CoinDesk. From a technical-analysis perspective, the current move is “a retest of the range high established in March after the initial surge from under $20,000. Success of this test would see the price claiming $30,000 while a failure here should see BTC drop to $25,000, followed by $23,000.”

But he added: “The current price is also testing the lows of July 2021, where the market bounced back into another big rally.”

Source Coindesk