Bitcoin, Ethereum Muted, Dogecoin Rallies As Market Maintains 'Greed' Sentiment: Analyst Predicts New Peak For King Crypto As US Elections And Potential Fed Rate Cut Looms

Benzinga · 10/18 03:18

Bitcoin and Ethereum continued trading flat even as equities notched fresh record highs. However, Dogecoin moved higher on Thursday.

Cryptocurrency Gains +/- Price (Recorded at 9:30 p.m. EDT)
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) +0.29% $67,713.61
Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH)
               		 -0.46% $2,606.32
Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE)           +8.86% $0.1353

What Happened: Bitcoin wiggled in a narrow range of $66,800-$67,400 for much of the day before kissing $68,000 overnight. The world's largest cryptocurrency was up over 12% in the last week.

Dogecoin spiked over 8% in the last 24 hours, extending a bullish trajectory that has seen the world's biggest meme coin gain around 26% over the week. Notably, on Thursday, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk referenced the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) during a town hall in Pennsylvania, where he expressed support for the GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump

Cryptocurrency liquidations exceeded $168 million in the last 24 hours, with over $121 million in upside bets getting wiped out.

Bitcoin's Open Interest rose by just 0.53% in the last 24 hours. Additionally, more number of institutional investors and top trader accounts on Binance were shorting Bitcoin than those taking long positions on the asset.

Market sentiment continued to be one of "Greed," according to the Cryptocurrency Fear & Greed Index.

Top Gainers (24-Hours)

Cryptocurrency Gains +/- Price (Recorded at 9:30 p.m. EDT)
Popcat (POPCAT) +10.63% $1.35
Dogecoin (DOGE) +8.86% $0.1358
Litecoin (LTC) +4.29% $73.50

The global cryptocurrency stood at $2.32 trillion, following a marginal decrease of 0.05% in the last 24 hours.

Stocks inched higher on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 161.35 points, or 0.37%, to close at a new record high of 43,239.05. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed just above the flatline to hit 18,373.61, while the S&P 500 closed down 0.02% to 5,841.47.

AI juggernaut Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) ended the day 0.89% higher, likely contributing to tech gains. Nvidia's rise, in turn, was due to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s (NYSE:TSM)  stronger-than-expected third-quarter revenue.

Additionally, retail sales in September bettered estimates, boosting confidence in the state of the economy.

See More: Best Cryptocurrency Scanners

Analyst Notes: Widely followed cryptocurrency analyst Michaël van de Poppe doubled down on his previous bullish estimates for King Crypto, citing U.S. elections and a potential rate cut by the Federal Reserve.

"Just a few weeks shy of the elections and a potential renewed rate cut from the [Federal Reserve]. The ATH for Bitcoin is close," the analyst projected.

His predictions were echoed by another analyst, Aaron Crypto, who stated that $70,000-$71,000 could be the final resistance level for Bitcoin.

"IMO, a move towards $71,000 followed by a quick dump and then break the previous ATH is a highly likely scenario. A new ATH is coming soon," the analyst added.

Photo by Avi Rozen on Shutterstock

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