Bitcoin 

BTC

$22,888

 price sliced through the $50,000 resistance level during the early trading hours on March 3 as bulls found their momentum and the majority of altcoins joined in on the rally as the day progressed. 

Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that the price of Bitcoin was trading at $48,500 in the early hours on March 3 before surging 8.6% to an intraday high of $52,631. Currently, BTC price trades slightly below $51,000, and while $50,000 may have become a soft support, a daily close above the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement ($52,000) is needed to confirm that a bullish reversal has taken place.

On-chain analysis from CryptoQuant indicates that Bitcoin whales have been consistently buying the dips below $50,000 and according to CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju, institutional buying is taking place at the $48,000 support, as seen by the highlighted orange line on the chart above.

Bitcoin's mainstream adoption continues to take place in Canada as Ninepoint Partners announced that it plans to change its Bitcoin trust offering to an exchange-traded fund on the Toronto Stock Exchange in an effort to increase trading liquidity and provide a better trading price. 

Rising yields put pressure on traditional markets

Bitcoin’s surge above $50,000 and increasing integration into mainstream financial markets has prompted some analysts to speculate on when a new all-time high will occur. For the time being, bearish macroeconomic factors are weighing on global markets and this could dampen growth in the short-term.

The S&P 500, Dow and NASDAQ faced selling pressure throughout the trading day and closed down 1.31%, 0.39% and 2.7% after a spike in the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield renewed concerns about the health of the U.S. and global markets.

According to Chad Steinglass, Head of Trading at CrossTower, Wednesday’s action in the market is a “revisit of the rates-based selloff” from Feb. 25, with tech equities and ARK funds facing increased pressure.

Steinglass said that headwinds being faced by BTC at the U.S. market open were the result of “being dragged down by GBTC as the GBTC discount has crept back up to about 4.5%.” Despite these challenges, Steinglass sees the recent favorable Bitcoin comments by Citigroup and Fidelity as strong support for the narrative of increasing institutional adoption.

Steinglass said:

The fact that Bitcoin continues to show strength even with GBTC acting like a resistance band holding it back is very encouraging and shows to me that the overall story, that of accelerating adoption, is still intact.”

Small and large-cap altcoins move higher

Bitcoin’s pop above $50,000 also helped ignite a rally in altcoins as the majority of the top 100 coins moved higher on Wednesday.

Ether 

ETH

$1,636

 gained 8% to set an intraday high at $1,610, while Cosmos 

ATOM

$13.33

 rallied 15.7% to a daily high at $21.18.

Enjin Coin (ENJ) was the breakout star of the day as it surged more than 50% to make a new all-time high at $1.32. The sharp double-digit rally appears to be the result of the growing popularity of NFTs and Enjin’s transition into the growing NFT marketplace.

The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.55 trillion and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 61%.