6 hours ago
17
Bitcoin price advanced to multi-week highs today, reclaiming the $117,000 level as risk appetite returned after the leading cryptocurrency closed September in positive territory.
A more than 3 percent gain over the past 24 hours pushed the total cryptocurrency market capitalization toward $4.1 trillion, while the Crypto Fear and Greed Index settled at a neutral 49, hinting at a cautiously balanced sentiment.
Altcoins delivered a more subdued performance with only a few notable outliers, yet the majority of the top 100 assets had moved back into green following last week’s pullback.
Why is Bitcoin price going up?
Bitcoin’s historical price trends are once again driving momentum, particularly as the market moves from September into October.
Traders often look to past cycles for clues, and the data shows a consistent pattern: when Bitcoin closes September in green, October has usually delivered positive monthly gains.
This narrative, often referred to as Uptober, has become a focal point for sentiment and is helping fuel expectations for the weeks ahead.
September has long carried the label of Bitcoin’s weakest month, with some market watchers calling it Rektember because of its track record of negative performance.
Across the past 13 years, the month has averaged a 3% decline, making this year’s close above $114,000 a rare bright spot.
Historically, when Bitcoin has managed to end September higher, it has often been followed by outsised gains in the final quarter.
Past examples include a 48% rise in 2024, 57% in 2023, and an extraordinary 480% in 2013, a history that is encouraging traders to view the coming months as potentially the strongest leg of the current cycle.
At the same time macroeconomic conditions have suddenly turned favourable for Bitcoin price especially due to ongoing government shutdown in the United States, which has weakened confidence in the dollar and pushed investors toward alternative assets.
A disappointing jobs report from ADP reinforced concerns about the economy, showing a loss of 32,000 jobs in September compared with expectations for 50,000 gains, while August numbers were revised downward to show a loss of 3,000 jobs instead of growth.
With the labor market softening and political gridlock continuing in Washington, many expect the Federal Reserve to persist with interest rate cuts, which usually tends to lift demand for risk assets such as Bitcoin.
Moreover, deadlines for several altcoin ETF applications are drawing near, and these funds are viewed as a major step forward for the sector.
Such products would open the door to significant inflows from both institutional investors and retail buyers in the United States..
There’s also talk in the US about allowing retirement funds to access the crypto market which adds to the sense that demand could rise meaningfully in the months ahead.
Will Bitcoin price go up?
Both Bitcoin and the wider crypto market may continue to benefit from the uncertainty surrounding the US government shutdown, particularly if it leads to lower interest rates as many analysts expect.
According to Bitget analyst Ryan Lee, Bitcoin’s independence from political and government risk makes it “attractive to mainstream traditional investors,” especially at a time when uncertainty is weighing heavily on the dollar.
“While corrections are likely along the way, most promising altcoins in the market appear to have bottomed out,” Lee said, adding that BTC reclaiming $116,000 is already a positive sign that the “positive october” narrative may actually play out.
On the liquidation heatmap, Bitcoin’s sharp move through the $114,000 to $116,000 zone cleared out a large cluster of leveraged positions, which has now flipped into a strong support base.
This level looks firm enough to cushion the market should a correction take place, suggesting that the $114,000 region is the closest area of defense for bulls in the short term.
On the upside, traders appear heavily concentrated just above current levels, with a visible band of liquidations stacked near $120,000.
This makes it the most immediate upside target for Bitcoin if momentum persists, as the market may be drawn toward those positions in a continued short squeeze.
Beyond that, the heatmap thins out until closer to $122,000, meaning price could extend higher quickly if $120,000 is broken with conviction.
Across X, some analysts were cautious as historical trends also note that some Bitcoin rallies that have followed a US government shutdown, have ended with sharp drops.
Among such takes, was one from prominent crypto analyst Ted Pillows.
The US government shutdown has happened today. During the last 2 shutdowns, $BTC pumped first and then dropped sharply. Will this time be different?
However, in an earlier analysis, Pillows noted that if BTC price manages to break past the resistance at $117,500, a new all-time high may be on the horizon, especially as the bellwether crypto had decisively reclaimed the $113,500 support level.
BTC/USDT – 1D price chart. Source: Ted Pillows on X.
Later in the day, fellow analyst Rekt Capital observed that the Bitcoin price was attempting to break past its monthly range.
A successful breakout, especially this early in October, could act as another strong momentum trigger heading into the final quarter of the year.
Speculating on upside targets on a longer timeframe, crypto analyst Kamran Asghar drew attention to a Fibonacci-based projection that places Bitcoin’s next major target at $148,444.
BTC/USDT – 1D price chart. Source: Kamran Asghar on X.
If this scenario plays out, it could place Bitcoin on track to challenge psychological levels not seen since late 2021, while also validating the increasingly loud calls from analysts that the fourth quarter could be a defining stretch for crypto this cycle.
At press time, Bitcoin had climbed close to 4% in the past 24 hours and wast trading at $117,358.
Top altcoin gainer for the day
In the past 24 hours, the total market cap of all altcoins combined rose nearly 6% to $1.8 trillion as of press time.
Ethereum (ETH), the leading altcoin by market cap, rallied 4.7% over the day as bulls managed to breach past the $4,300 resistance.
It was trading a little higher at $4,332 as of press time.
Other large-cap tokens like XRP (XRP), Solana (SOL), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Cardano (ADA) posted gains ranging between 4-7% while nearly all of the remaining 100 altcoins by market cap were in the green.
Among them, Zcash (ZEC) led the day’s gains with a surge of nearly 29%, followed by Pump.fun (PUMP) at 21.4% and SPX6900 (SPX) at 15%.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Zcash: ZEC surged to a three-year high of $89.3 after ThorSwap revealed it had added support for the privacy coin. Users can now trade ZEC directly for Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), and other major altcoins through the ThorSwap network.
The development opens the door to decentralized and non custodial cross chain trading for one of the most prominent privacy tokens, which has increasingly been dropped from centralized exchanges under regulatory pressure.
ZEC had already been on an uptrend over the past four days supported by bullish technicals, and the latest integration further added to the bullish market sentiment.
Pump.fun: For PUMP, its sharp rally today can largely be attributed to its HTX listing.
Besides the listing news, Pump.fun ongoing buyback program, in which it repurchases PUMP tokens from the open market using platform-generated revenue, has also supported its gains.
Further, on the daily chart, it had broken out of a falling wedge pattern that typically points to a bullish reversal in the days following the breakout. This has likely provided traders another reason to be bullish.
SPX6900: SPX gains appear linked to investor excitement after the token rebounded from a key support level at $1, which drew in dip buyers.
Data from Nansen also shows that whales have started accumulating the token around this level, adding further fuel to its recent rise, which was partly funded by speculative trading.
The post Bitcoin price reclaims $117K as Uptober kicks off, ZEC, PUMP post gains appeared first on Invezz
English (US) ·