Bitcoin crosses $17,000 for first time in 2023, thanks to US job report: What lies ahead?

livemint.com:

The largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin witnessed a strong bull run on Monday thanks to a US job report which came in rosier-than-expected for December month easing rate hike worries among investors. The dollar weakened, while equities across Europe, Asia, and US equities garnered strong rally. The crypto market also tracked the positive sentiment of global equities with Bitcoin emerging among the top trending tokens.

On CoinMarketCap, at the time of writing, Bitcoin traded above $17,200 up by 1.5%. Its market cap is $331.31 billion. In the last 24 hours, there has been a nearly 83% upside in trading volumes in Bitcoin.

Earlier in the day, the crypto had inched closer to the $17,250 mark. Following the rally, Bitcoin's weekly gains are now nearly 3%.

Notably, as per CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin's ROI is up nearly 12,630%. However, Bitcoin is still lower by 75% from its all-time high of $68,789.63 which was recorded on November 10, 2021.

Talking about Bitcoin crossing the $17,000 mark, Dhruvil Shah - SVP Technology - Liminal, a digital wallet infrastructure platform said, "The latest US jobs reports revealed that the unemployment rate has gone down significantly and is reversed to pre-covid levels. The dip in the unemployment rate was perceived as a macro boost which resulted in a surge in US and European stocks along with the crypto market."

Shah added, "Bitcoin broke major resistance levels of $16,800 and $17,000 for the first time in 2023."

As per US Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the country's total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 223,000 in December, and the unemployment rate edged down to 3.5%. Notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, health care, construction, and social assistance.

Notably, the