Key Takeaways
- Bitcoin gained 1% to reach $85,500 by Oct. 4, helping crypto market capitalization recover to $2.99 trillion.
- Altcoins saw mixed momentum as ether added 0.4% to hit $2,700, while quant surged 39% and zcash plummeted 17%.
- Traders are monitoring early “Uptober” macro signals to gauge if top digital assets can sustain Q4 gains.
Crypto Market Rebounds After Macro-Driven Dip
The cryptocurrency market ended a volatile week nearly flat, recovering from a Sept. 29 slump that erased $50 billion in value before a late-week rally driven by “Uptober” sentiment. The initial downturn, which briefly knocked aggregate market capitalization down to $2.95 trillion, coincided with surging oil prices and rising Treasury yields.
Bitcoin led the broader market’s wild swings, closing September up 7% and narrowing its year-to-date losses to 4%. After dipping below $83,000 on Monday, the asset held above that support level until Wednesday, when a brief spike to $85,300 quickly surrendered its gains.
The start of October offered a glimpse into how bitcoin might perform in a month known historically for strong returns. Market data showed bitcoin surging to $87,217 on Oct. 2, matching levels not seen since Sept. 23. However, the top cryptocurrency quickly surrendered those gains, sliding to $84,250, just below its weekly open of $84,720. A weekend rebound pushed bitcoin’s price up over $1,200 to close at $85,500, securing a modest weekly gain of nearly 1% and carrying its market cap just past $1.7 trillion.
Major Altcoins Trade Sideways as Ether Gains 0.4%
Bitcoin’s range-bound price action extended across high-cap altcoins, most of which turned in even flatter weekly performances. Ether (ETH) tracked bitcoin almost step-for-step, bottoming on Sept. 28 before rallying to a Thursday high of $2,754. A swift sell-off followed, but ETH steadily clawed its way back to $2,700. By Sunday afternoon (3:45 p.m. EST), ETH was trading just over $2,700, up 0.4% for the week.
BNB, meanwhile, was one of a handful of high-cap altcoins with weekly gains in excess of 1%, rising from $778 to $789. Quant (QUANT) and hedera (HBAR) were among the few notable altcoins with impressive gains, jumping 39% and 9%, respectively.
Meanwhile, privacy coin zcash (ZEC), one of the best-performing high-cap altcoins in September, closed the week down 17% after plunging from just over $1,600 to $1,332 on Sunday. Other altcoins that logged significant losses included rain (RAIN), down approximately 9%; near (NEAR), down 8.6%; and uniswap (UNI), down 7.3%. Bitcoin cash (BCH), which spiked weeks ago following news of a CME BCH futures announcement, closed down 5.2%.
The mixed altcoin price action dragged their aggregate market cap down from $1.3 trillion at the start of the week to $1.285 trillion by Sunday.
