Bitcoin loses momentum ahead of $5000, still up nearly $100 on day

The BTC/USD pair extended its gains on Tuesday and rose to a fresh 6-week high at $4940 and coming within a touching distance of its record high that was set at $4969 on September 2. As of writing, the pair was trading at $4878, adding 2%, or $96, on the day.

Commenting on today's upsurge, "the stellar recovery could be attributed to an increased trading activity in Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong in the aftermath of Chinese crackdown. Speculation is also doing the rounds that fears of increasing ICO restrictions across the globe may have triggered a rotation of money out of ether and ethereum-based tokens and into bitcoin," FXStreet analyst Omkar Godbole noted in an article written for Coindesk.com.

Moreover, according to cryptocoinsnews.com, the lack of support for SegWit2x is providing an additional boost to bitcoin prices. "Bitcoin analyst and investor Tuur Demeester noted that the Bitcoin price has a chance of achieving the interim target of $5,000 if SegWit2x turns out to be a minority fork." cryptocoinsnews.com author Joseph Young wrote. 

Technical levels to consider

In order to rise higher in the near-term, the pair may need to make a decisive break through the $4969/$5000 (record high/psychological level) area. Above that region, the pair could aim for $5200 (upper line of the trend channel coming from mid-September) and $5500 (round-number). On the downside, supports could be encountered at $4550 (Oct. 9 low), $4200 (50-DMA) and $4000 (psychological level).