Bitcoin (BTC) reversed recent gains to lose 1.5% on April 6 as bulls were kept frustrated with no sign of an attack on all-time highs 

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

Bitcoin will "likely" squash $60,000 resistance

Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed local lows of $57,340 hitting during Tuesday after another failed attempt at tackling $60,000 resistance.

Despite being a matter of thousands of dollars away from all-time highs of $61,700, BTC/USD has been unable to drive sellers away for good. While thinning out, the last band of resistance has remained in place.

This slowdown in the 2020–2021 bull market has alarmed some, but professional analysts remain steadfast in their optimistic appraisals of the largest cryptocurrency.

Among them is Bloomberg Intelligence, which on Tuesday predicted that the second quarter was more likely to deliver a further surge to $80,000 than a capitulatory move to $40,000.

A new report reads: "Adoption of the benchmark crypto as a global reserve asset has crossed the mainstream threshold, as we see it, and the market tide is rising. This scenario has switched the focal point of our 2021 analysis toward more-technical indicators from a wider range of fundamental and on-chain metrics in the past few years."

"A more likely 2Q scenario is to breach $60,000 resistance and head toward $80,000. A backup toward $40,000 support is less likely, in our view."

Bloomberg senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone, who authored the report, is well known as a Bitcoin bull, and his perspective chimes with that of various analytics resources coming out with their own reasons to be confident in the market.

Continuing, he noted that in terms of a reserve asset, Bitcoin is usurping ground that used to be reserved for gold. The precious metal "will always have a place in jewelry and coin collections," he argued, "but most indicators point to an accelerating pace of Bitcoin replacing the metal as a store of value in investor portfolios."

"Bitcoin's fundamental and technical underpinnings are improving while gold's deteriorate," the report summarized.

Altcoin wake-up call sees gain

Meanwhile, altcoins had even more to celebrate than the average Bitcoin investor on the day, as large-cap cryptocurrencies added to strong weekly growth.

Among them was Ether (ETH), fresh from new all-time highs around $2,150, and XRP, which broke the $1 barrier for the first time since 2018 before correcting. 

Binance Coin (BNB), the second-largest altcoin by market cap, gained 3.4% to hit $388, sealing weekly gains of over 33%.

"Large Cap Altcoins are waking up," popular Twitter trader Rekt Capital announced.

An accompanying graphic suggested that smaller altcoins would feel the benefit once larger coins had outperformed. As Cointelegraph reported, altcoins traditionally do best once Bitcoin has spent a reasonable length of time consolidating after a bull run.

Bitcoin market cap dominance stood at 55.1% on the day, its lowest since May 2019.

Cryptocurrency market cap dominance chart. Source: CoinMarketCap