(Kitco News) – Bitcoin (BTC) climbed back above $67,000 in early trading on Friday as sentiment in the crypto ecosystem is flying high following the start of the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee.
The community has been abuzz about this year's conference due to a star-studded speaking lineup that includes Presidential candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Donald Trump. Crypto fans are especially eager to hear Trump’s speech as rumors have been circulating that he could announce plans to make BTC a strategic reserve asset if re-elected.
“Nobody wants to short Bitcoin into the weekend,” 10x Research CEO Markus Thielen wrote in a July 25 analyst note. He suggested that futures traders were taking a break from placing short bets due to fears that BTC price could surge following the announcement from Trump.
“Because if Trump announced a strategic reserve, Bitcoin would gap higher,” Thielen told Cointelegraph. “He is undoubtedly eyeing the powerful crypto lobby, which has raised $150 million for the Crypto Super PAC.”
Noting that the U.S. Treasury currently holds $600 billion in gold reserves, Thielen highlighted that the Department of Justice has confiscated $15 billion worth of BTC, meaning the government would have to accumulate a large amount of Bitcoin to match the amount of gold they hold.
Because of this, Thielen said Trump could potentially reveal his intentions to adjust the balance between the two assets. “Trump could indicate his intention to increase this ratio to about 10% of the gold reserves, if not higher,” he stated.
Thielen said that the mere mention of this possibility could cause the market to “run with this news” without waiting for the election in November.
As a result of the bullish anticipation, Bitcoin has recovered from the pullback that started on Monday when BTC topped out at $68,347 and began to slide lower, falling 7.24% to hit a low of $63,400 near mid-day on Thursday before bulls were able to reverse the price action.
BTC/USD Chart by TradingView
Since then, bulls aggressively bid Bitcoin higher and managed to peak above $68,000 in early trading on Friday before pulling back to support at $67,000. At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $67,616, an increase of 4.42% on the 24-hour chart.
“The cryptocurrency market rallied 3.4% overnight to $2.4 trillion, taking advantage of the mixed performance of US indices, with the Russell2000 and Dow Jones up and the Nasdaq100 and S&P500 down,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, senior market analyst at Fx Pro. “It's not a full recovery, but it's the second bounce in a week from just under $2.31 trillion.”
“Bitcoin rose 4.4% over the last 24 hours to $67.0K, taking the crypto market with it,” he added. “It bounced off the 50-day moving average and continued to gain strength on Friday. This is an indication of the strength of the bulls, who have managed to defend the medium-term uptrend. At current levels, Bitcoin has returned to the upper boundary of the descending channel formed in March.”
Following the launch of eight U.S. spot Ethereum (ETH) ETFs on Tuesday, Ether’s price has struggled to gain momentum as traders opted to ‘sell the news.’ The ETFs saw net negative flows of $133.3 million on Wednesday and $152.4 million on Thursday after recording a net inflow of $106.6 million on Tuesday, according to data provided by Farside Investors.
“The sell-off largely replicates the pattern seen at the launch of the Bitcoin ETF in January,” Kuptsikevich said. “Ethereum is finding support near its 200-day moving average, which also demonstrates the bulls' desire to keep the coin in a long-term growth trend and confidently buy on dips towards $3000. Ethereum is now trading near $3200 and has no technical hurdles ahead until the $3500 area where local profit-taking could occur.”
ETH/USD Chart by TradingView
