Bitcoin Challenges $11,200 Before $12k Resistance Halts Progress

Bitcoin prices reached weekly highs of $11,189 Monday, Feb. 19 as the largest cryptocurrency met resistance around $12,000.

Data from major exchanges tracked by Coinmarketcap showed BTC/USD suddenly retaking $11,000 before momentum reversed at just under $11,200.

The latest peak is around $700 lower than Bitcoin’s 2018 high of $11,901, achieved Feb. 21 before a widely forecast capitulation took hold. Prices subsequently dropped to around $9,500 last week.

Problems escaping a restricted price cycle were highlighted in February by commentators, including trading educator Tone Vays and an online analyst known as Filbfilb, who predicted bearish profit-taking occurring at a maximum $12,400 during the Feb. 21 high.

Bitcoin is nonetheless outperforming altcoins Friday as market sentiment produces broad downturns for the majority of non-Bitcoin assets.

BTC has also managed to reclaim market capitalization share in the second half of last month, rising to above 40% of the total market.

The optimism around Bitcoin appears rooted in the technical improvements to its network which received a boost last week.

Segregated Witness (‘SegWit’), a protocol which gives users faster and cheaper transactions, received full support in the latest Bitcoin Core client release, 0.16.0.

Bitcoin’s support for the protocol appeared in tandem with implementations of SegWit by major exchanges Coinbase and Bitfinex.

SegWit now accounts for almost 30% of the total number of Bitcoin transactions, data shows.