Cryptocurrency markets experienced a surge on Thursday, with Bitcoin (BTC) surpassing the $27,000 level. This upward movement in the price of Bitcoin occurred alongside a reduction in macro pressures.
BTC reached nearly $27,300 and was trading at $27,010 at the time of writing, marking a 3.2% increase over the past 24 hours. Additionally, the CoinDesk Market Index (CMI), which measures the performance of various crypto assets, rose by 3.8%. The CoinDesk DeFi Index (DCF) led the gains with a 5.5% increase.
Several governance tokens of popular DeFi lending platforms also experienced significant gains. COMP, AAVE, MKR, and LDO, which are associated with Compound, Aave, Maker, and Lido Finance respectively, saw gains ranging from 5% to 21%.
In the Ethereum ecosystem, scaling network Arbitrum’s token, ARB, rebounded with a 9.6% rally after experiencing losses earlier in the month.
The rally in the crypto market coincided with a modest recovery in U.S. stocks, as well as a pullback in the 10-year Treasury yield and oil prices. The weakening of the U.S. dollar also contributed to the positive sentiment.
Ether (ETH) outperformed Bitcoin, recording a 4.8% increase to reach $1,660. This rise in price was driven by investor optimism regarding the potential approval of a futures-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States. Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas noted that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had asked ETF filers to update their applications in preparation for potential approval and trading next week due to a potential government shutdown.
Furthermore, VanEck, alongside Grayscale, ProShares, Bitwise, and others, submitted paperwork for their own futures-based ETH ETF.
According to institutional crypto exchange FalconX, the open interest on Deribit shows that most of the outstanding contracts for BTC are around the $27,000 level. Calls and puts are evenly split, indicating that option traders do not have a clear opinion about the short-term direction of the price.
Julius de Kempenaer, a senior technical analyst at Stockcharts.com, expressed his view that BTC is currently ranging between $25,000 and $31,000. He believes that Bitcoin could move higher and surpass the upper barrier in the next 6-8 weeks. However, if BTC remains suppressed under this level, it could create stronger resistance.
If BTC breaks decisively below $25,000, de Kempenaer suggests that it could fall to the next support level at $17,000-$18,000.
Overall, the recent surge in cryptocurrency prices, particularly for Bitcoin and Ethereum, is attributed to a combination of easing macro pressures, potential regulatory developments, and positive sentiment in the market. Investors are closely monitoring these factors and anticipating further price movements in the near future.
