Bitcoin Breaches 'Ichimoku Cloud' to Flash Bullish Signal While Altcoins Lag: Technical Analysis

This is a daily technical analysis by CoinDesk analyst and Chartered Market Technician Omkar Godbole.

BTC$103,360.58 has finally surpassed a key resistance that limited recovery rallies earlier this year, after rising over 5% to $93,500 in 24 hours.

The leading digital asset by market value has topped the "Ichimoku Cloud," confirming a bullish shift in momentum, while other major cryptocurrencies lag.

The Ichimoku cloud, developed by a Japanese journalist in the 1960s, is used to identify support and resistance, momentum, and trend change in price actions. The indicator comprises five lines: Leading Span A, Leading Span B, and the gap between the two representing the cloud, Conversion Line or Tenkan-Sen (T), Base Line or Kijun-Sen (K), and a lagging closing price line.

Crossovers above and below the cloud represent bullish and bearish shifts in the market trend, and BTC has moved above the cloud, as seen in the chart below.

The bullish breakout means the cloud can now act as support, arresting potential price pullbacks just as it acted as resistance, capping recovery rallies in February and March. BTC is also back to trading above the widely tracked 50-, 100-, and 200-day simple moving averages (SMAs).

This move now puts the focus on the resistance at $100K, a major psychological level, followed by record highs above $109K. Meanwhile, support is seen at $88,550, which marks the convergence of the 200-day SMA and the Ichimoku cloud.

A move below the same would negate the bullish outlook.

Altcoins lag

Major altcoins such as payments-focused XRP, leading meme token DOGE, Cardano's ADA, Ethereum's native token ETH, and Solana's SOL are yet to chart a BTC-like bullish breakout above the Ichimoku cloud.

The above coins, though buoyant alongside BTC's ascent, have yet to make their respective bullish breakouts.