In trading on Thursday, the value of the major cryptocurrency is rising steadily. In the past 24 hours, the price of the coin has gained 2.34%.

By the way, the leading altcoins started to grow actively following bitcoin. Ethereum rose by 3.13% to $3343 while Binance Coin jumped by 4.8% to $483. The total value of the crypto market gained 3% to $2.07 trillion in the past 24 hours. Reaching the round psychological mark has stimulated demand among traders for altcoins outside of the top 10 cryptocurrencies.

Experts note that bitcoin's rise is hardly instantaneous and unpredictable. The major virtual asset has been growing in value over the past two days (+10%) and has now reached the $44,000 mark, which it had already broken through at the end of Wednesday. However, this rally did not continue in early trading on Thursday.

Moreover, since the beginning of this week, Bitcoin has lagged noticeably behind the global crypto market. Its share has fallen to 40%.

The cryptocurrency's surge on Wednesday was attributed to the release of inflation data in the United States. Although the figures exceeded analysts' forecasts, the dollar index plunged to a two-month low, losing ground to the highest level in over a year. Bitcoin took advantage of the weakening dollar to try to break the downtrend that has dominated the virtual asset market since November. At the same time, rising inflation in the US encouraged investors to turn to higher-yielding tools, which included cryptocurrencies.

However, crypto experts think it is too early to predict a new rally in the virtual asset market, which is still 30% below November's highs. Analysts believe that Bitcoin's rise above the $45,000 level could confirm the bulls are prevailing. At the moment, only the digital coin's pullback within the developed downward channel is possible.

By the way, crypto experts' opinions on Bitcoin's future vary widely. Some experts are confident that the main digital coin will soon become so popular that one in three Americans will own it by the end of this year.

Others believe that bitcoin remains overvalued amid future monetary policy tightening by the Federal Reserve. To buy the cryptocurrency, analysts suggest waiting for its price to drop to $25,000.