Bitcoin reclaims $80,00 as risk appetite returns to markets

Bitcoin topped $85,00 at one point during U.S. hours and is now trading at $84,400, up 4.7% over the past 24 hours.

Sellers of risk assets are taking a breather on Friday, with crypto markets posting sizable gains along with U.S. stocks after a week of lame price action.

Bitcoin topped $85,000 at one point during U.S. hours and is now trading at $84,400, up 4.7% over the past 24 hours. All cryptos in the CoinDesk 20 Index were higher during the same period, with Chainlink's LINK, Solana's SOL and SUI leading gains.

The price action happened as risk appetite returned to traditional markets as well. The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq indexes were 1.7% and 2.3 up, respectively.

Meanwhile, gold, whose price action trounced that of bitcoin during the selling of the past few weeks, backed down below $3,000 after crossing the level yesterday for the first time in its history.

Today's bounce also propelled BTC back above its 200-day moving average after dipping below that trendline for the first time since last August's crypto correction. The 200-day moving average is a widely-used benchmark for traders and investors to gauge long-term trends for asset prices, often serving as support for prices to bounce in a bull market, while losing the level providing a risk-off or bear market signal.

Closing the day above the moving average, currently at $83,767, would be a win for bulls, fueling hopes that the worst of the correction might be over for now. Otherwise, confirming the moving average as resistance could foreshadow a deeper pullback.

"Bitcoin and stocks have more room to run at least for a while, and bouncing from oversold levels is a small part of it. Feels like should be close to the end of panic, for now at least, and spend at least a few recovering. Then the market reassess," cross-asset trader Bob Loukas said earlier this week.