Bitcoin (BTC) inched closer to $17,000 on Jan. 3 as the first Wall Street open of the year loomed.

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

Consensus builds for fresh attack on $17,000

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching highs of $16,766 on Bitstamp — its best performance since Dec. 27.

Analysts and traders were keenly awaiting the start of Wall Street trading after European stocks posted gains the day prior and United States futures followed suit.

As Cointelegraph reported, both equities and gold had looked considerably more appetizing than Bitcoin since the FTX meltdown in November.

“If BTC is finally ready to join the party, I could see it run to 17.3K~ as drawn below,” popular trader Crypto Chase wrote in part of analysis on Jan. 2.

Fellow account Cold Blooded Shiller likewise posted $17,300 as a target of interest for bulls should the S&P 500 in particular play out in their favor.

“Despite a market-wide bounce, BTC is still below the key ~$17300 resistance,” Rekt Capital added about the monthly BTC/USD chart.

BTC/USD annotated chart. Source: Rekt Capital/ Twitter

Prior to the open, the U.S. dollar began to see volatility, retracing a day of swift upside action which took the U.S. dollar index (DXY) over 104.8 for the first time since mid-December.

“Local move above the weekly from the support I had marked out on USD/EUR,” PA trader Luckshury wrote in an update on the day.

“If It can hold above the weekly I would expect further upside on DXY and thus a move down on ES/Crypto. This again is based on if it can hold that weekly level into support.”

U.S. dollar index (DXY) 1-hour candle chart. Source: TradingView

BTC avoids rising DCG tensions

Internal events meanwhile had noticeably little impact on BTC price strength, these taking the form of concerns over potential trouble for Digital Currency Group (DCG).

Related: US will see new ‘inflation spike’ — 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week

Amid ongoing doubts over the fate of the conglomerate's group over companies, including Grayscale, operator of the largest Bitcoin institutional investment vehicle, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), one client in particular publicly took DCG to task.

In an open letter to DCG CEO, Bary Silbert, Carmeron Winklevoss, co-founder of Exchange Gemini, demanded answers.

Gemini funds locked up since the FTX debacle began total nearly $1 billion, Winklevoss stated, repeating the need for DCG to meet a Jan. 8 deadline to "solve this problem."

Silbert, formerly vocal on social media, had yet to respond to the letter at the time of writing.

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