Bitcoin price appears to take temporary respite after a five-month rally. However, analysts still remain bullish for the near future.
Bitcoin is currently trying to sustain its breakthrough past the $58K price level after experiencing an initial rejection. The leading coin is riding a five-month rally and fast approaching its former all-time high over $60,000. However, BTC failed to retain its gains above $58,000 early Thursday, and retreated to its nearest support level at $54,000. Furthermore, the charts show a decoupling of the relative strength index (RSI) from price increase and a loss of upward momentum.
Analysts assert that this retracement is normal and offers a springboard upon which BTC can attack the $58,000 threshold again. They however caution that any further slip beyond the $54K support and the crypto may spiral downwards to $50,000. Conversely, any sustained progress above the daily high of $58,500, and BTC may very well be en route to $64,801 and over.
$820 Million Options Expiry
Roughly 12-13 hours ago before BTC hit $58K for the first time, the bulls already had their sights set on that price level. This was ahead of the upcoming $820-million options expiry on Friday, October 15th. Furthermore, the aforementioned options expiry was largely impacted by the 20% price rally initiated on October 4th. This, in all likelihood, eliminated about 92% of the put (sell) options.
In addition, the bulls are banking big on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approving Bitcoin futures ETFs to spur price on. According to the head of the Luno exchange in the UK:
“The rising expectations for a bitcoin ETF shown by rising open interest, and growing basis premiums for CME’s futures may be a cause of the bullish momentum.”
However, bullish investors have a few more days – possibly more – to wait on the decision. This is because the agency will not begin reviewing any requests until between October 18th and November 1st. Another incident that probably spurred investor sentiment was the mining crackdown in China. According to research, the US accounted for about 35.4% of the BTC hash rate.
Bitcoin Price Along with Altcoins See Crypto Market Reach $2.37 Trillion, Surpassing Apple
The primary factor contributing to Bitcoin’s surge might be the recent rise in generally positive news. However, in the last 24 hours, altcoins, including Ethereum, Binance Coin, and XRP, all gained between 4-6%. Polkadot saw the biggest overnight gains by rocketing up 20% since Wednesday.
Bitcoin’s price increase takes the overall crypto market cap above $2.37 trillion, enough to surpass Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) as the world’s most valuable company. Specifically, the American multinational tech giant is $40 billion less in value than the crypto market, at $2.33 trillion. Pseudonymous Dutch analyst PlanB, almost accurately predicted the price of BTC for August and September back in June. This same price prediction model puts the token on track to hit about $110,000 by the end of the year. Furthermore, Bitcoin alone is fast closing in on the entire market cap of silver.
BTC is currently changing hands at $57,887.
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