BTC has pulled back to $65,000 — and this may have been exacerbated by fears that the embattled Chinese property developer Evergrande could default on its debt within days.
Bitcoin has retraced its steps after racing to a dramatic all-time high of $66,930 on Wednesday.
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency had witnessed a decisive breakout above $64,863 — initially rallying to $66,100 in the space of 25 minutes.
But it was Ether that’s the strongest performer on a 24-hour timeframe. At the time of writing, it’s up 8.2% and sitting at $4,169… levels not seen since May.
The big question now is whether ETH will manage to secure a new all-time high of its own. The price to beat stands at $4,362, and that would involve a rise of approximately 4.6% from current levels.
Among those in a celebratory mood on Crypto Twitter was Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who shared this tongue-in-cheek picture:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 21, 2021
Incidentally, his electric vehicle company was offering an update to analysts after the closing bell last night — and Tesla revealed it hadn’t sold any of its BTC investment in the most recent quarter.
Results for the third quarter show that the value of its Bitcoin stood at $1.26 billion, resulting in an impairment charge of about $50 million. However, there’s little doubt that Tesla’s standing will have been vastly improved by the cryptocurrency’s latest surge.
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What’s Next?
All eyes are on Bitcoin to see whether the cryptocurrency can manage to crack $70,000 in the coming hours and days.
But in the short term, BTC has pulled back to $65,000 — and this may have been exacerbated by fears that the embattled Chinese property developer Evergrande could default on its debt within days.
The company had been attempting to sell a $2.6 billion stake in its business, but shares across Asia fell sharply after it announced that deal had fallen through.
Assuming Bitcoin can weather this storm, it’ll be interesting to see whether any further gains are at the expense of altcoins.
In a recent episode of the CoinMarketRecap podcast, CrossTower research analyst Martin Gaspar said smaller cryptocurrencies may end up lagging in the near term, but could run higher in December and January.
That would mirror a pattern that was last seen in 2017.
