Bitcoin (BTC) hit 48-hour highs overnight into May 20 as U.S. dollar weakness gave bulls some much-needed respite.

Dollar strength declines after 20-year record

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView recorded a high of $30,725 for BTC/USD on Bitstamp.

Still struggling to flip $30,000 to reliable support, the pair nonetheless avoided a deeper retracement, helping calm fears that last week’s $23,800 capitulation event did not mark the bottom.

The U.S. dollar index (DXY) provided the background to Bitcoin’s relatively solid performance, this coming off two-decade highs to dip 2% in a week.

This appeared to relieve some pressure on stock markets, the S&P 500 finishing May 19 down a more modest 0.58% compared to previously in the week, the Nasdaq 100 less.

While treading water more than 50% below its all-time highs, the largest cryptocurrency had punished latecomers to the market, one analyst noted.

“Today, newbies who joined last year are in -34% loss,” Ki Young Ju, CEO of analytics platform CryptoQuant, wrote in a series of tweets on the day.

Ki highlighted a chart of bands of unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) showing the age of investments. Those who had only experienced one “bear cycle” before were now down 39%, he concluded, while older coins were still in profit.

“So here’s hopium for bears. If $BTC crashed so hard due to the macro crisis and all Bitcoiner institutions go underwater, it could go $14k based on historical MDD,” he added.

As Cointelegraph reported, multiple predictions of a major BTC price retracement, some under $14,000, continue to circulate.

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Meanwhile, attention focused on Bitcoin’s…