(Kitco News) – Bitcoin (BTC) excited crypto watchers overnight after it spiked to $65,000 for the first time since June 20 as the impact of the failed assassination attempt on Presidential candidate Donald Trump continued to reverberate across the market.
Adding to the bullish sentiment was Monday’s announcement of Ohio Senator J.D. Vance – a known cryptocurrency holder and supporter – as Trump’s Vice Presidential pick for the upcoming election.
As noted in a report from Fortune, Vance owns between $100,000 and $250,000 in Bitcoin, up to $250,000 in a gold ETF, up to $100,000 in a crude oil ETF, and up to $250,000 in a checking account with brokerage Charles Schwab.
With the odds of Trump being re-elected in November spiking, his pro-crypto decisions over the past several months have stoked optimism across the ecosystem that the next leg up in the bull market is underway.
“Following the events this weekend, everybody is talking about Bitcoin; and why not?” said Lukman Otunuga, Senior Market Analyst at FXTM, in a note to Kitco Crypto. “Although not breaching its all-time high seen earlier this year, the cryptocurrency has hijacked the headlines once again after topping $62k.”
“Such aggressive gains fuelled by the massive inflows into US Bitcoin exchange-traded funds which attracted over $1 billion over the past week, despite the bearish sentiment across the markets, have fuelled speculation around prices reaching even further highs,” he added. “Looking at the technical picture, another all-time high could be around the corner with the psychological level of $80,000 acting as possible resistance further down the road.”
BTC/USD Chart by TradingView
“Beyond this point, it is uncharted territory,” Otunga said.
To help traders get a better sense of where Bitcoin is headed during this cycle, analysts at FXTM examined a variety of Bitcoin price predictions across 10 reputable sources. They determined that the average prediction is $123,056.
“Regarding the average price prediction for BTC of $123,056, this will require the cryptocurrency to rally another 98% from its current levels!” Otunga noted. “While the timeline is unclear, this could be a possibility given how prices have rallied over 39% year-to-date and remain heavily supported by the ETF approvals for Ethereum earlier this year.”
In the near term, Bitcoin is working to flip resistance at $63,000 into support, which will serve as the staging ground for its next push higher.
“The crypto market has rallied nearly 2% over the past 24 hours to a $2.34 trillion cap, with the slippage at the start of the day pushing the figure to $2.38 trillion, a level last seen on June 20th,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, senior market analyst at FxPro.
“Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) are testing their 50-day moving averages on Tuesday after retreating from the more important 200-day MA,” Kuptsikevich noted. “A major correction and upside reversal has already finished earlier this month, so the $63K per BTC and $3500 per ETH levels now look like a temporary shakeout of positions but not impenetrable resistance.”
“According to data from CoinShares, crypto fund investments rose by $1.439 billion last week, following inflows of $441 million the previous week; the figure marked the second week of growth and was the fifth-largest weekly inflow on record,” he said. “Investments in Bitcoin rose by $1.347 billion, Ethereum by $72 million, and Solana by $4 million, with Ethereum seeing the largest inflows since March, likely in anticipation of the imminent approval of spot ETH ETFs in the US.”
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has also helped stoke the fires of bullish energy after he touted Bitcoin’s legitimacy as a financial instrument, particularly during times of heightened fear.
During a Monday appearance on CNBC’s Squawk On The Street, Fink detailed his journey from Bitcoin skeptic to believer and said he now thinks it represents the future of financial innovation.
“As you know, I was a skeptic. I was a proud skeptic,” Fink said. “And I studied it, learned about it, and I came away saying ‘Ok, my opinion of five years was wrong, and here’s my opinion today.’ This is what I believe in today, I believe in the opportunity, I believe Bitcoin is legitimate.”
Fink added that “he’s not trying to say there aren’t misuses, like everything else,” but called Bitcoin a “legitimate financial instrument” that allows people to have returns uncorrelated to the rest of the market.
“It is an instrument that you invest when you are more frightened, it is an instrument when you believe that countries are debasing their currencies by the excess of deficit, and some countries are,” he said. “I believe we have countries where you are frightened of your everyday existence, and if you have an opportunity to invest in something that is outside your country’s control, then you can have more financial control.”
Fink reiterated his position that Bitcoin is “digital gold,” while also suggesting that the top crypto has numerous “industrial use” applications that most people don’t appreciate.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $64,460, an increase of 2.20% on the 24-hour chart.
