BTC Sets New ATH Above $126,000 as Analysts Expect ‘Tactically Bullish’ October

Crypto markets continued their steady climb, rising 0.5% on the day today, Oct. 7, with total market capitalization holding out around $4.4 trillion. Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $124,755, down just 1.1% from its new all-time high of $126,080, reached on Monday afternoon.

Ethereum (ETH) jumped 3.4% to $4,746 today, bringing its weekly gains to nearly 14%. Among the top 10 altcoins by market capitalization, BNB continues to lead the pack in 24 hour gains, up over 8% on the day, pushing its price to $1,329, and becoming the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. XRP is down about 0.7% to $2.98, while Solana (SOL) lost 1.2% to $231.

Within the top-100 assets by market cap, Plasma (XPL) posted the biggest daily gains, up 13%, while Zcash (ZEC) was the biggest loser, dropping 11.6%.

As Bitfinex analysts explained in their weekly update, a major factor behind Bitcoin’s rebound has been a “sharp reduction in sell pressure,” adding that the late-summer correction “was primarily driven by short-term holder capitulation and heavy whale distribution, coinciding with profit-taking after the Fed’s first rate cut.”

Meanwhile, Glassnode analysts noted in an X post today that Bitcoin’s cost basis distribution shows “thin support between $121K and $120K, with a key cluster near $117K where around 190K BTC were last acquired,” pointing out that a pullback into this area “could attract demand as recent buyers defend the level.”

Analysts at Coinbase Institutional wrote in a market update that their October outlook remains “tactically bullish,” as U.S. dollar softness, a short-term global liquidity impulse, and a Fed policy bias toward insurance cuts “create a favorable market setup for crypto.” They added:

Liquidations, ETFs, and Macro

In the past 24 hours, over $354 million in leveraged positions were liquidated, according to Coinglass. ETH led the wipeout with over $81 million liquidated, followed by BTC at $69.8 million and other altcoins totaling nearly $45 million.

On Monday, Oct. 6, spot ETH ETFs saw over $181.7 million in net inflows, pushing total assets under management to $32.03 billion, according to SoSoValue. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a massive $1.21 billion in net inflows yesterday, which is the largest single-day total this year.

On the macroeconomic front, without fresh official numbers coming out due to the U.S. government shutdown, investors and policymakers are leaning on private “shadow” data from firms like Carlyle and ADP to get a read on jobs, inflation, and growth, Reuters reports.

The shutdown is starting to hit the economy, with losses of about $7 billion a week, or about 0.1 percentage point off quarterly GDP growth on an annualized basis, according to EY.