Bitcoin 

BTC

$18,141

 kept $40,000 in play at the Wall Street open on Feb. 25 after 16% daily gains increased bulls' confidence.

Whales "leading the charge" towards $40,000

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD circling the $39,000 mark at the start of trading Feb. 25, geopolitical turmoil failing to induce a fresh major sell-off.

Stocks also benefited as the week came to a close, with Germany's DAX up 3% on the day and the FTSE 100 up 4% in London.

Signals from the Russia-Ukraine conflict provided an additional boost, with the prospect of talks being raised by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to end hostilities.

With $34,300 this week's floor, optimism was slowly increasing over a rematch with $40,000 resistance.

"Purple Whales are leading the charge," monitoring resource Material Indicators noted about a chart showing a fresh spate of buying from both small and large investors.

"Historically, this class has had the most direct correlation to Bitcoin price. If BTC bulls can push past $41.5K, then $45K should come into focus rather quickly."

Popular trader and analyst Pentoshi, meanwhile, revealed that he planned to wait for $40,000 to hit before reducing BTC exposure.

As he noted, however, on longer timeframes, there was still no overall shift in the paradigm for BTC price action, which continued to stick to a rigid range.

Bitcoin dominance pushes higher

Altcoins moved in step with Bitcoin, providing some relief for embattled bagholders.

Related: Bitcoin investors ‘buy the dip’ as BTC nears $40K, gaining 16% in less than 24 hours

Ten percent daily gains were commonplace, while the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap were led by Terra 

LUNA

$1.54

, which was up 20% on the day to $65.40.

Ether 

ETH

$1,402

 hovered near $2,700, still down 5.7% compared to the same time last week.

"Dominance is still on track for further upside, though this upward progression towards the red level may extend into early March," trader and analyst Rekt Capital commented on a chart about Bitcoin's market cap presence versus altcoins.