Bitcoin prices went above the $40,000 barrier Monday, seemingly breaking out of the stalemate that had developed over the previous few weeks.

According to CoinDesk data, the world's most popular digital currency surpassed that level late this morning.

It was up more than 20% from the more than six-month low reached in late January, according to additional CoinDesk data.

Since breaking above the psychological barrier of $40,000, the cryptocurrency has maintained a pretty narrow range.

While the digital asset fluctuated within this range, it achieved an intraday high of $40,901.18 about 3 p.m. EST.

Why has bitcoin seen such recent gains?

Numerous publications, including those in MarketWatch and CoinDesk, referenced the recent US jobs report, which indicated that companies added 467,000 jobs in January.

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This amount was significantly higher than the consensus estimate of 125,000 jobs supplied by Bloomberg-polled analysts.

Numerous market specialists who contributed to this post shared their perspectives on the subject, highlighting the critical nature of both this current jobs report and other significant variables.

Numerous them alluded to how closely digital currency prices had tracked those of stocks, at least until lately.

"Throughout the most of the week, Bitcoin and Ethereum were closely correlated with the SPX and Nasdaq, until early this morning, when both coins began to outperform," said Josh Olszewicz, head of research at Valkyrie Investments.

"This separation was then accentuated further following the announcement of Non-Farm Payroll and unemployment data that came in far better than forecast."

Tim Enneking, managing director of Digital Capital Management, chimed in as well.

"Strangely enough, I believe the surge was a result of the day before's decorrelation (finally!) of the crypto markets to the SPX. Once those restraints were lifted, a more 'natural' price movement took hold," he explained.

"The news in the crypto field has been mainly positive; nothing really negative has arisen (although WormHole hasn't helped), and "only" the pending new US crypto regulations loom as a potential negative," said Enneking.

"In fact, there was no justification for the price to be down here in the first place other than the 'risk off' mentality that permeated fiat markets, resulting in the recent correlation being extremely strong. That looks to have come to an end, allowing crypto to develop naturally," he remarked.

Additionally, analysts emphasised the amount of short interest that existed prior to the price spike, a circumstance that might easily have magnified bitcoin's gains.

"One of the reasons for the move's strength was the significant amount of short interest that had been opened around the $30,000 level, compelling bears to close their positions," said Dylan LeClair, head of market analysis at Bitcoin Magazine.

"Our study demonstrates that prior bitcoin bottoms were preceded by bearish periods in the derivatives markets, most notably when perpetual futures funding was negative for extended periods of time," he noted.

"As negative money accumulated, nearly $53 million in total short liquidations occurred during the last eight hours, assisting in pushing bitcoin beyond $40,000."

Additional Points to Consider

Apart from the considerations mentioned previously, numerous additional happenings may have contributed to today's bitcoin rise.

Olszewicz emphasised some of these points, writing, "Other variables perhaps contributing to Bitcoin's advance today include a persistently negative funding rate on derivatives, which frequently occurs when shorts pay longs."

Additionally, the put/call ratio for all options maturities was the highest since late 2018, indicating a potentially crowded trade, and shorts haven't been significantly pressed or liquidated since November's highs," he noted.

"Finally, the fear & greed sentiment index has been below 30 since January 1st, which is typically indicative of oversold markets," the expert said.

The Fear And Greed Index was 20 at the time of this press, indicating "Extreme Fear."

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