Investing.com -- Bitcoin bears continued to chip away at $10,000 after a brief drop below the key psychological level early Thursday drew in some support, with bulls seeing reason for optimism.
Bitcoin fell 2.01% to $10,046 after recouping some losses fall a dip to a session low of $9,522.
But the weakness in the popular crypto has not drowned out bullish calls about bitcoin’s superior performance this year compared to its previous bull run – from 2015 to 2017 – as evidence that the upward trend remains intact.
Others, meanwhile, have pointed to bitcoin’s rising dominance rate -- the weight of bitcoin’s markets cap relative to the total market cap for all crypto assets -- as a sign that a bull run may be imminent.
Bitcoin’s market cap was last at $180.28 billion, about 70% of the total crypto marketcap of $264.8 billion.
At 70%, bitcoin’s dominate rate is at levels no seen since April 2017, just before the previous bull run that saw the popular crypto soar to $20,000.
Despite the optimism, bitcoin may find itself under further pressure if it suffers a meaningful break below its 100-day moving average, a key technical measure, around the $9,600 price level.
Other cryptos were mixed, with XRP rising 2.21% to $0.2621, Ethereum down 2.43% to $184.30 and Litecoin losing 2.12% to $76.33.