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Bitcoin faced Monday blues as the price of the cryptocurrency dropped over 2.2% after hitting a monthly high of $69,408 earlier in the day.
The altcoin market remained fairly calm with the top 99 altcoins recording modest gains throughout the day, with ATOM, MEW and POPCAT topping the charts.
The overall cryptocurrency market capitalisation dropped roughly 3% after steadily increasing since Oct. 14 while Bitcoin dominance dropped to 51.33% from the monthly high of 55.75% recorded on Oct. 10.
The slowdown in BTC’s rally suggests that traders are cashing in some profits or possibly rotating funds into altcoins, as supported by the constantly dropping dominance metrics for the bellwether.
Typically, such a scenario indicates that the highly anticipated altseason may soon play out.
Altseason has historically sparked when Bitcoin consolidates within a tight range and moves sideways for long periods.
However, Bitcoin’s rally may not be over just yet if we consider certain metrics.
Firstly, Bitcoin exchange-traded products have experienced a massive surge in demand, with a staggering $2.1 billion pouring in just last week.
This brings total inflows since their launch to over $20 billion—a milestone that took gold nearly five years to achieve.
Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas noted earlier today that a lot of these inflows are coming from European markets as residents invested over $105 billion into BTC ETF products, marking an all-time high.
Another factor that could play out in favour of a continued BTC price rally is the optimism around the upcoming elections in the United States.
Republican nominee Donald Trump has been leading the polls as the potential winner and the market views this as a positive for not just Bitcoin, but the overall crypto sector as a whole.
Meanwhile, Democratic ticket holder Kamala Harris has also softened her stance towards the sector and has promised to support innovation and investments in the space.
Many market watchers believe Trump’s win could propel Bitcoin price to six-figure prices, while some say a bull market would ensue irrespective of who wins.
Hopes of Trump’s victory have also been fuelling overall inflows into the crypto market as reported by Coinshares in its Digital Asset Fund Flows Weekly Report on Oct. 21.
The firm noted that over $2 billion in crypto product investments were recorded last week.
Some macroeconomic factors are also at play that could support Bitcoin’s rally.
Specifically, Japan’s weak inflation, with headline inflation dropping to 2.5%, suggests the Bank of Japan is unlikely to raise interest rates soon, fueling a rally in USD/JPY.
Additionally, China’s recent interest rate cuts and efforts to revive economic growth have added to the global liquidity, potentially benefiting risk assets like Bitcoin.
Combined, these factors create a favourable environment for a Bitcoin rally, which adds weight to the fact that the BTC rally might not be over just yet and short-term traders might just be taking some profits.
However, if Bitcoin trades sideways from here, there’s an increasing likelihood that traders could shift their attention to altcoins which have started to move in tandem with Bitcoin.
Possible indicators for such a scenario would be further drop in BTC dominance.
At press time, Bitcoin was hovering near $66,900. The leading altcoins for the day were as follows:
Cosmos Hub
Cosmos Hub (ATOM) rose 4.4% over the past day, trading at $4.85 with its market cap sitting at $1.89 billion at press time. The altcoin was also up 18.8% from its weekly low of $4.24 with an intraday high of $5.04 on Oct. 21.
Source: CoinMarketCap
ATOM price rally also came with a jump in trading daily volume which was up 150% hovering over $310 million.
The rally came as Grayscale, an asset manager with over $15 billion AUM has revealed that it was considering adding ATOM and other Cosmos assets including AKT, FET, INJ, OM, RUNE, SEI and TIA to its investment products.
If Grayscale decides to back ATOM, it adds a layer of credibility to the project, drawing institutional interest towards it.
Cat in a dogs world
Cat in a dogs world (Mew) hit its all-time high of $0.010 earlier in the day as its market cap surged past $900 million.
The meme coin was up 5% over the past day while its 30 days gains stood above 78%.
Source: CoinMarketCap
MEW’s latest surge came as a major South Korean crypto exchange Upbit revealed that it added the Korean Won (KRW) as trading pair for MEW.
Typically a listing on a major exchange such as Upbit drives the related cryptocurrency’s price significantly higher as it opens the token to more investors.
Meanwhile, MEW’s trading volume also surged 440% over the past day to over $453 million, showcasing strong market participation during the rapid rally. Rising volume alongside a rise in a coin’s price suggests a strengthening bullish trend which might further add fuel to the an ongoing rally.
Popcat
Popcat (POPCAT) stood 3.6% above its previous day, trading at $1.29 at press time after witnessing an intraday high of $1.42 earlier in the day. The meme coin was up over 160% from its lowest point in September with its market cap standing at $1.26 billion when writing.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Popcat recent price performance has attracted more holders over the last month which stood at over 77,700 holders, up from 68,329 on Sept. 22.
On the 1D POPCAT/USDT price chart, the meme coin’s price stood close to the middle Bollinger Band at $1.2701 while the Relative Strength Index had fallen from overbought levels seen on Oct. 6 to a neutral reading of 54, suggesting that the meme coin was losing steam.
A further drop below the support level of $1.27 will confirm a reversal in trend, following which the meme coin may fall to its lower support level at $1.0074 indicated by the lower Bollinger Band.
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