Crypto Market Rebounds Despite U.S. Government Shutdown

The cryptocurrency market rebounded on Wednesday, Oct. 1, as investors shrugged off the U.S. government shutdown.

Major cryptocurrencies rallied sharply, with Bitcoin (BTC) climbing above $118,000 for the first time since August. Currently, the world’s largest cryptocurrency is trading around $118,010, up about 4.5% on the day, according to The Defiant’s price page.

Ethereum (ETH) surged to $4,337, gaining roughly 5.5% over the past 24 hours. Among major altcoins, Solana (SOL) rose 6.8% to $219, BNB increased 2.5% to $1,019, and TRON (TRX) added 2% to $0.34.

XRP gained 4.3% to $2.94 following news that Ripple’s long-time CTO and XRP architect, David Schwartz, will step down by the end of the year.

Other notable gainers outside the top 10 include pumpfun’s PUMP token, up nearly 26% to $0.006, and Zcash (ZEC), which rose 23% to $90.

The total crypto market capitalization reached $4.12 trillion, up 4.3% on the day, with Bitcoin dominance at roughly 57% and Ethereum at 12.6%.

Shorts Liquidated

In the past 24 hours, nearly $574 million in crypto positions were liquidated, per Coinglass data, with longs accounting for around $144 million and short positions making up nearly $430 million.

BTC led with $184 million in liquidations, followed by ETH at around $141 million, while altcoins accounted for around $50 million.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded nearly $522 million in inflows on Sept. 30, the second straight day of inflows, while spot Ethereum ETFs attracted around $127 million, according to SoSoValue.

Government Shutdown

The market rebound comes after the U.S. government shut down on Wednesday, following Democrats’ refusal to support a Republican funding plan without healthcare concessions.

While the market has reacted positively, analysts warn that prolonged political uncertainty could weigh on risk assets, including crypto, in the coming weeks.

However, other experts, such as John Glover, CIO of Ledn, noted that past shutdowns have caused only brief market dips, and any short-term weakness in digital assets could be seen as a buying opportunity.

“Trump has been very willing in the past to proceed with government shutdowns, as he did so twice in his first term,” Glover said. “While this was previously used as a way to force the holdouts in Congress to be more flexible in negotiations, it was largely seen both times as a very temporary situation, and risk markets, which initially sold off, bounced back quickly.”

He also added that because of the Republicans’ control of both the House and the Senate, the risk of a prolonged shutdown appears lower than in previous similar events.