Bitcoin has broken through $66K and is surging higher

Market overview

The crypto market capitalisation has risen to $2.25T, gaining 2.7% over the past 24 hours and climbing to levels last seen over a month ago. This is a promising attempt to resume growth following a period of consolidation, and it is worth closely monitoring market dynamics near the previous local highs of $2.27T, as a sustained upward trend would pave the way for May’s $2.70T highs. Among the most actively traded coins, the top performers over the past day were Cardano (+9%), Uniswap (+8.7%) and Polkadot (+6.9%). The worst-performing coins are also in positive territory, albeit more modestly: Tron +0.1%, Litecoin and Dash both up 1.7%.

Bitcoin has gained 3% over the past day, trading above $66K and approaching the highs seen in the first half of May. At current levels, the leading cryptocurrency is attempting to break out from below a former strong support level that acted as resistance last month. Slightly higher, approaching $68K, lies the 61.8% retracement zone from the May–June sell-off. The ability to consolidate above this level would be a further confirmatory signal of an upside trend reversal.  

News background

Large Bitcoin whales have been building up their positions over the last two months, while medium-sized wallets have been selling. This divergence in behaviour could be a ‘constructive signal’ for BTC in the medium term, according to CryptoQuant.

Investors are withdrawing stablecoins from exchanges, depriving the market of growth fuel and preventing Bitcoin from breaking out of its protracted consolidation. Stablecoin outflows from Binance and Bybit reached $2.3 billion over the month, according to analyst Darkfost.

The bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has announced a new phase of payouts for 31 July. Those affected by the trading platform’s collapse will receive around $900 million. The upcoming phase will be the fifth tranche of the company’s bankruptcy proceedings, with the total amount paid to creditors now reaching $10 billion.

The developers of the Cardano blockchain have successfully activated the Van Rossem hard fork on the mainnet. The update is designed to reduce the cost of executing new Plutus smart contracts and prepare the blockchain for future upgrades.

BitMine purchased an additional 7,430 ETH last week, bringing the total amount of Ethereum in its reserves to 5.78 million ETH. BitMine’s reserves exceed 4.8% of the total Ethereum supply. Furthermore, BitMine repurchased 5.5 million ordinary shares, valued at $4 billion, as part of its previously announced buyback programme.  

Summary: The crypto market is recovering: BTC is above $66K, with a market capitalisation of $2.25T. Whales are accumulating BTC, but outflows of stablecoins from exchanges are holding back growth.