Bitcoin and the broader crypto market kicked off the new month of October and the new week with bullish momentum. The pioneer cryptocurrency broke past $28,000 for the first time since mid-August in a surprising rally on Sunday evening. The price spike coincided with the U.S. government preventing a shutdown at the last minute.
BTC’s Rally Past $28K Bolsters Optimism
Bitcoin greeted “Uptober” in style, with its price hitting a two-month high.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap peaked at $28,454 on CoinGecko on Monday morning before falling back to its current price of just around $28,300. This is the highest the BTC price has been since August 17. The bullish move coincided with the short liquidations, suggesting that a short squeeze in the crypto futures market may have triggered the BTC surge.
A short squeeze occurs when the price of an asset climbs fast as short order holders, who bet against the market with leverage, are forced to buy an asset at higher prices to cover their short.
The combined digital asset market cap increased 2.8% over the past 24 hours to $1.16 trillion. Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest crypto by market cap, also followed Bitcoin, bumped over $1,700 for the first time in five weeks.
Well-known trader Jelle observed that Bitcoin was in the process of a major trend change.
Bitcoin broke its mid-term downtrend, retested it, and is now starting the next leg higher,” he asserted along with an illustrative chart.
“Strong weekly close behind us; most charts look like we’ll push even higher this week. Welcome to Uptober,” Jelle summarized.
October is historically a bullish month for the crypto market. In fact, BTC has not recorded monthly losses in October since 2013 except only twice, which prompted this month to be dubbed “Uptober” within the cryptoverse.
Can Bitcoin Soon Reach $30,000?
Cryptocurrencies got a boost after the United States government avoided a shutdown over the weekend. The aversion means the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) can potentially meet its spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) deadlines in the coming months.
Last week, the SEC postponed making decisions on a number of spot Bitcoin ETF filings, including BlackRock’s and Bitwise’s. The crypto community is optimistic that an eventual listing of spot-based ETFs will unlock the floodgates to mainstream capital. A research report by broker Bernstein recently estimated that the Bitcoin market could attract as much as $650 billion in capital following the launch of a spot-based Bitcoin ETF.
Meanwhile, the $28,500 level has acted as a major support in the previous bull market. Should BTC break past this, the likelihood of hitting the $30,000 region becomes quite high.
