- Mid-October brings a significant crypto rally with Bitcoin touching on the US$66K mark, and other major cryptos like Ethereum and Solana also seeing gains.
- Meme coins, particularly Book of Meme and cat in a dogs World, outperform with substantial increases over the past few days.
- The surge in crypto prices results in US$245 million in trader liquidations, with major losses for BTC and ETH short sellers.
- Crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe suggests the bull market may be back, as market trends and strong institutional interest, highlighted by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, indicate growing global acceptance of digital assets.
Halfway through October and we’re finally getting a sense of what the month may be able to deliver. In true Uptober fashion, Bitcoin and other major cryptos are rallying. BTC broke through the US$66k (AU$98.1K) mark earlier, and is currently up 5.5% in the past 24 hours.
Major Assets Up, Most Gainers: Meme Coins
Ethereum (+6.9%), BNB (+3.5%), Solana (+7.2%) and XRP (+3.5%) are also up. Notably, the biggest winners are meme coins.
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Book of Meme (BOME) is up a whopping 43% in the past day and 67% week-on-week, closely followed by cat in a dogs world (MEW), which gained 33% in the past 24 hours alone.
The price rally has seen traders being liquidated to the tune of US$245 million (AU$364 million). Coinglass data shows that US$5.14 million (AU$7.64 million) in BOME short sellers have been caught out by the rally.
The largest liquidations are US$89.27 million (AU$132.71 million) in BTC shorts and US$42.89 million (AU$63.76 million) in ETH shorts.
The market rally has led to some speculations about whether the bull market is back in full swing. Crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe believes so, saying that hitting the $66K mark means the trend (of lower highs and lower lows) could be broken.
Fink: Digital Assets More and More a ‘Reality Worldwide’
Meanwhile, US markets reacted positively to strong inflation data, pushing equities and the dollar higher, with expectations of a Federal Reserve rate cut in December.
Coupled with growing demand for Bitcoin, this makes for an interesting rest of Uptober. As CryptoQuant noted, demand for BTC has been growing the fastest since April 2024.
And then there’s the institutional side. As Larry Fink, BlackRock CEO and Bitcoin proponent, said in an earnings call, he believes that digital assets are becoming “more and more of a reality worldwide”.
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According to Fink, they’re talking to companies around the globe about digital asset allocation. Fink added it doesn’t really matter who becomes president and that the current adoption of crypto reminds him of the early days of the now US$11 trillion (AU$16.3 trillion) mortgage market.
Here’s full Larry Fink quote on bitcoin/digital assets from the Q3 earnings call, he says bitcoin asset class in itself, they talking with institutions worldwide about allocation, dig assets remind him of the early days of the mortgage market (now $11T) and POTUS won’t make dif pic.twitter.com/McvpW7cCnB
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) October 14, 2024
