Crypto Industry News:

According to Bitnodes.io, the number of Bitcoin nodes is currently at its highest ever. Currently, 11,558 nodes are active. Coin.dance, in turn, estimates the total number of Bitcoin nodes at 11,613, slightly above the previous high of 11,250, set a year ago - also in January.

The Bitcoin Core 0.21.0 update was made available for public download on January 14, 2021. It is currently the fourth most used software version among the nodes. There are currently 619 nodes running on this version, which is approximately 5.5% of all nodes running any Bitcoin Core version. Almost 5,000 nodes still use the second and most recent version of Bitcoin Core, 0.20.1, which remains the most popular so far.

The latest version of Bitcoin Core also introduces a way to create more predictable test networks and implements Taproot consensus rules without activating them on the main network.

The changes will ultimately serve to increase privacy in Bitcoin transactions as Taproot ensures that output no longer discloses terms that were unnecessarily disclosed in previous implementations. Removing the distinguishing features of transactions will also help Bitcoin to become a more fungible asset, more in line with Satoshi Nakamoto's original "digital cash" proposition.

Technical Market Outlook:

The BTC/USD pair market keeps trading under the short-term trend line resistance (marked in gold on the chart). This means the market is still consolidating in the narrow range located between the levels of $35,00 - $37,000. Any violation of any of this levels would meant the up trend continuation or deeper corrective cycle towards $27,000. On the other hand, any trend line breakout and violation of the level of $37,000 will be the trigger for bulls to continue the bounce towards the level of $39,000. The momentum indicator remains neutral, but the longer time frame up trend is intact.

Weekly Pivot Points:

WR3 - $50,241

WR2 - $45,262

WR1 - $41,218

Weekly Pivot - $35,725

WS1 - $31,875

WS2 - $26,553

WS3 - #22,402

Trading Recommendations:

Bitcoin made another ATH and bulls are in control of the market. The up trend continues and the next long term target for Bitcoin is seen at the level of $50,000, so any correction or local pull-back should be used to open the buy orders. This scenario is valid as long as the level of $20,000 is clearly broken.