Bitcoin eyes $35K

Bitcoin last night recorded its highest weekly close – $34,525 – going back to April of 2022.

As of 9:17 a.m. (EST), BTC was roughly $34,560 after a 0.6% gain relative to this time yesterday.

Meanwhile, the past 24 hours have brought a surge in gaming projects grand marshalling a parade of fast-pumping altcoins.

Axie Infinity (AXS) and Gala (GALA) as of about 7 a.m. (EST) each had gained about 15%. The third-best performer among the ranks of the Top 100 was the crypto betting parlor Rollbit (RLB), up 10%.

As far as Axie's high score, it seems some hefty AXS transactions were spotted last week, per CryptoNews, citing Santiment; so, it appears "whales" may have helped shift momentum for the 57th-largest digital asset, which previously had been stuck (for going on a month) trying to be $4.50. AXS is now closing in on $6 following a 30% rise in seven days. AXS has a total market capitalization of about $763 million, according to CoinGecko.

Among Big Ten assets, Solana registered today's biggest gain (+8%). The No. 8 coin, SOL has surged 18% to $35 in the past week. SOL's market capitalization, per CoinGecko, sits just below $14.7 billion. By way of contrast, the largest crypto, BTC, has a market cap of $676 billion.

Since last Monday, back when BTC was still eying $31,000, there has been a singular jumping binge worth highlighting. It was of course turned in by PEPE, a frog-inspired memecoin trying to rival the canine-themed projects, DOGE and SHIB, which also seemingly inexplicably came out of nowhere to thrive as digital communities.

PEPE is the 78th-largest coin with a market cap of $510 million. It has grown by 62% in the past seven days. CoinDesk pegged the rally to a $5.5 million PEPE token burn last Tuesday.

The U.S. stock market is trying to shake off the doldrums after a week in which the S&P 500 veered into mild correction terrain. The blue-chip index has shed 10.6% off its 2023 high.

The S&P is -4% in October. With just one more scary day to go, the index is on pace for its third-straight negative month. Okay, there hasn't been a negative monthly streak like that since the start of the global pandemic.

But out of darkness there is (usually) light. CNBC cited a market note from Christopher Harvey, head of equity strategy at Wells Fargo Securities, who earlier today wrote: “We expect an oversold bounce inspired by a less-hawkish Fed.”

Bitcoin's highest weekly close in 550 days sets the stage for continued bullish momentum.

Actually, the past two weeks have ushered in quite the sharp upswing, relative to the first half of October. Looking back to two Mondays ago, we see BTC below $28,000. It gained 25% over the ensuing fortnight, largely on the back of spot ETF hopes, leaving behind the long-term horizontal resistance area at $30,500 (BeInCrypto).

Getting to $40,000 is certainly not off the table, provided BTC naturally can find its way, like a river seeking an estuary.

And it's not just technical signals underscoring weekly time-frame fortitude. An analysis of on-chain activity shows whale transactions (involving a movement of at least $100,000 worth of BTC) rose to 23,400 last week. That's the most in a seven-day span so far this year, according to CoinDesk, citing IntoTheBlock.

Meanwhile, Glassnode said open interest on all BTC futures and options contracts reached $17.73 billion on Friday, surpassing the peak recorded during the mania of late 2021.

The fact that $3.4 billion worth of exposure was recorded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) in recent days suggests, says Unchained Crypto, this blast of open interest activity was set off by institutional investors.