Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, recovered on Monday, having lost over 8 percent or $6,000 on Black Friday following updates on the new coronavirus variant Omicron.

Bitcoin price was up over 5 percent at $57,230 (over Rs 43 lakhs) at 10:50 am IST Monday, fighting the bullish momentum that was reining in the market from the past two weeks. Bitcoin failed to retest $60,000 last week due to continued strength in the US dollar. Plus, the Federal Reserve hinted at tapering bond purchases and increasing interest rates, earlier than planned previously, making risky assets like cryptocurrencies less attractive. The final push came last week when WHO announced Omicron as a variant of concern.

The World Health Organisation has said Omicron could be potentially more virulent and transmissible. Countries, like the United States, will restrict travel for non-US citizens from South Africa and other countries starting Monday.

While prices seemed to have recovered, the market sentiment is still fearful. According to Crypto Fear and Greed index, the emotions are now most fearful since September. The Fear and Greed index takes a basket of variables to compute a score of what investors are feeling. The score ranges from 1 to 100 and it is currently sitting at 33, slightly higher than Sunday's 27.

Altcoins, or major cryptocurrencies besides Bitcoin, also surged Monday, with Ether leading the rally. Ether was up over 7 percent to $4,320 (Rs 3 lakh). The coin has surged over 4 percent in the past seven days, having fallen briefly below $4,000 Friday.

A major factor behind Ether's 4 percent rally last week was Ethereum, its underlying blockchain, reaching a new milestone. According to data from Dune Analytics, the unique addresses on Ethereum broke rose to 4 million last week, an all-time high. However, one user could have multiple addresses.

Other altcoins like Binance Coin, Solana, and Cardano were also rising over 4, 7, and 6 percent, respectively. Ripple's XRP has also surged nearly 8 percent to trade at $0.9896. Polkadot is up over 8 percent and Dogecoin is trading over 2.5 percent higher.

Crypto Technicals - Trend reversal around the corner

Analysts at WazirX's trade desk believes BTC is stronger and that the daily time frame indicates the formation of a cup and handle pattern. A cup and handle pattern resembles a cup and a handle where the cup is in the shape of a 'U' and the handle has a slight downward drift.

Bitcoin technicals, a cup and handle pattern

"We expect resistance at the $68,000 level and immediate support at the $53,000 mark. We believe a trend reversal is around the corner," a WazirX spokesperson said.

Ether, the number two cryptocurrency, continues to maintain its stronghold against Bitcoin. The coin is outperforming Bitcoin by a mile. While in the past month, Bitcoin has declined over 5 percent, Ether has risen over 1 percent, according to data from coinbase.com.

Bitcoin-Ether daily trend

Against Bitcoin, Ether has broken the daily trend of the triangle pattern and hovered around the $0.075 level. "The adoption around DeFi is ever increasing and we expect a turnaround for ETH soon. Immediate support is expected around 0.071 and next resistance at 0.079 levels," WazirX spokesperson said.

(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)