Bitcoin (BTC) rate rose above $68 thousand again. On the morning of October 18, the asset exceeded the $68.2 thousand mark, after which it continued to fluctuate in the range of $67.9-68.1 thousand. Fixing the Bitcoin rate above $68 thousand will open the way for further growth, analysts believe. If this happens, experts have reason to believe that the coming weeks and months will be “green”. The next psychologically important level is called the $70 thousand mark.
At 16:00 Hong Kong time on October 18, the BTC price is fluctuating around $68 thousand. Over the past day, the leading coin has risen in price by 1.2%, over the week – by 11.6%. Bitcoin dominance in the crypto market over the past 24 hours, according to TradingView, has reached 59%.
The inflow of investor funds into US spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in less than a week of trading amounted to $1.86 billion – this is the highest value since March, when the bitcoin rate, according to SoSoValue, reached an all-time high. Then, during the trading week from March 11 to 15, the inflow of capital into the funds exceeded $2.57 billion. Funds from BlackRock, Fidelity and other companies manage bitcoins worth $64 billion. According to the results of the trading session on October 17, the net inflow of funds into all spot funds amounted to $470 million, of which $309 million came from the BlackRock fund.
Ethereum remains in a seven-month downtrend, as competition between leading blockchain networks continues, which threatens a further decline of the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency. The price of Ethereum (ETH) has fallen more than 36% in the past seven months, from a yearly high of $4,111 in March 2024 to its current level of $2,600. The sluggish price action may be due to Ethereum losing ground in the battle for innovation among Layer 1 (L1) blockchains. The “L1 Wars” are the name given to the race between leading blockchain networks such as Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, and Fantom to solve the blockchain trilemma that seeks to balance security and scalability without sacrificing a reasonable degree of decentralization. Another reason for Ethereum’s sluggish price momentum may be the value fragmentation caused by Ethereum L2 networks that are attracting investment from the Ethereum ecosystem into their own currencies. This could make monolithic blockchains like Solana (SOL) more attractive to investors
Most of the other top 10 cryptocurrencies by capitalization showed minor growth of around 1.5%. Only Dogecoin (DOGE) grew by 10.3% in a day. Ripple’s XRP (XRP) fell the most – by 0.7%. Toncoin (TON) rose in price by 1%. Of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by capitalization, the two “cat” memecoins showed the biggest growth: Popcat (POPCAT) and cat in a dogs world (MEW) grew by 14% and 10%, respectively. The Maker (MKR) cryptocurrency fell the most in a day – by 5.1%.
The Fear and Greed Index in the crypto market reflects the continued positive sentiment among investors. The indicator has been in the “greed” zone for the fourth day, showing 73 points out of 100 on October 18. The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies fell by 0.2% in 24 hours, to $2.44 trillion. The trading volume for 24 hours was about $112 million.
