Crypto stocks see price rally as Bitcoin tops $66K

Publicly traded crypto-linked firms in the United States saw gains on Oct. 14 as Bitcoin rallied 6% to briefly hit $66,400 — its highest price since July 30.

Bitcoin (BTC $65,579) miner CleanSpark was the strongest performer for the day, closing up 12.72% at $10.81 and continuing to climb 1.72% after hours to $11, Google Finance data shows.

Crypto exchange Coinbase followed, closing with an 11.3% gain at $196.35 — a seven-week high — and continued to climb 1.71% to $199.70 in after-hours trading.

Crypto miner Iren — formerly Iris Energy — also saw double-digit percentage point gains of 10.21%, while competitors TeraWulf and MARA Holdings, formerly Marathon Digital, rallied 6.65% and 5.6%, respectively.

Change in the share price of the eight largest crypto mining firms by market cap on Oct. 14. Source: Companies Market Cap

Semler Scientific — a medical manufacturing firm that copied MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin-buying playbook — traded flat on Oct. 14 then increased 4.3% in after-hours trading, while digital payments firm Block gained 2.8%, Yahoo Finance data shows.

Business intelligence firm MicroStrategy — which holds 252,220 BTC worth $16 billion — was one of the few that closed down on the day, dropping 5.1% to $201.67, but got a slight 1.65% bump to $205 after hours.

Bitcoin miner Core Scientific also fell by 1.9% to $12.97, with a slight recovery to $13.05 after the bell.

The rallies and after-hours gains came alongside a 5.7% bump in Bitcoin price over the last 24 hours — which saw it briefly hitting its highest price since July 30 — prompting some industry analysts to speculate if “Uptober” has finally begun.

Bitcoin analyst On-Chain College noted in an Oct. 14 X post that Bitcoin cleared its 200-day moving average and short-term holder cost basis of $62,600 — both key bull market support levels signaling a possible price breakthrough.

“Has Uptober begun?!” On-Chain College pondered.

In an Oct. 14 X post, Dan Tapiero, founder of crypto investment firm 10T Holdings, said Bitcoin is “on the verge” of breaking through $70,000.

“Uptober” — a bullish term for October that has seen Bitcoin’s price increase in nine of the last 11 Octobers — often kickstarts strong fourth quarters for Bitcoin, CoinGlass data shows.

Bitcoin’s month-on-month returns since 2013. October highlighted in blue. Source: CoinGlass

CK Zheng, a chief investment officer of crypto hedge fund ZX Squared Capital, said the 2024 halving event and the upcoming US election could help push Bitcoin above its all-time high price of $73,738 in the fourth quarter — or soon after.

Bitcoin is currently trading at $66,270 — still 10.4% off its all-time high set on March 14, CoinGecko data shows.