Bitcoin continued to storm ahead this morning, adding to what has turned out to be a stellar October for the benchmark cryptocurrency.
Despite a sluggish first half, the BTC/USDT pair has gained 14% since the start of October, with double-digit growth in the past week alone, thanks to a combination of bullish factors.
First and foremost, the hype surrounding a spot-bitcoin ETF approval in the US has reached a fever pitch, with securities regulators seemingly receding from their hawkish position on the matter.
Bitcoin bulls are naturally galvanised by the prospect of major institutions like BlackRock (NYSE:BLK), Ark Invest and Grayscale getting the go-ahead for trading bitcoin investment products on the stock exchange.
The rally also coincides with a rally in gold prices, suggesting a correlation with safe haven assets prices amid worsening geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
These bullish factors pushed bitcoin well above $30,000, to even test the 31k barrier for the first time in three months, where profit-taking began to take hold.
At the time of writing bitcoin was swapping for a solid $30,700.
Bitcoin has gained 8.5% over six months – Source: tradingview.com
Unlike bitcoin, the second-largest cryptocurrency Ethereum (ETH) remains well below the 200-day trendline, despite a strong weekend performance.
Since Friday’s close, the ETH/USDT pair has added over 5% and was changing hands at an October high, just shy of $1,700, at the time of writing.
In the broader altcoin space, Solana (SOL) has ripped ahead of the market by adding more than a third to its market capitalisation over the past seven days, bringing the Ethereum alternative to seventh place on the cryptocurrency table.
It’s a sea of green for the rest of the blue chips too, with BNB, Cardano (ADA) and Ripple (XRP) all adding green candlesticks.
These robust cryptocurrency prices continue to batter short positions on the futures market, with another $85 million in short orders wiped from the market in the past 24 hours.
Global crypto market cap currently stands at $1.16 trillion, with bitcoin dominance a solid 52.5%.
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