Bitcoin Price is Up 0.80% Today as BTC Trades at $67,000

Bitcoin (BTC) price today trades at $68,101.0 as of 11 PM. BTC price hit a daily high of $68,821.0 today after sliding 2.09% on April 7.

Why Bitcoin Price is Rising Today?

Bitcoin price dropped 0.04% today and currently auctions around $66,890 on October 24, 2024. Since the weekend rally, BTC has been on a downtrend and continues to shed as investors sell. Although there was a brief rally to $67,600 in the late New York trading session, the overall trend remains bearish.

Short-term Bitcoin Price Performance is Bearish

*bitcoin price updated as of 11 PM.

Price of BTC trades at $66,990, bringing the year-to-date gain from 56% on October 20 to 52% as of October 24. Although many altcoins have shot up in excess of triple digits, Bitcoin has yet to do the same. Ethereum price’s YTD performance stands at 7.13% and is well below BTC.

Although Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Bitcoin’s popularity is due to its first-mover advantage and its being a secure, decentralized network. In addition, many narratives like digital gold, inflation hedge, uncorrelated asset, have kept BTC at the forefront of the crypto market since its inception in 2009.

Bullish Historical Bitcoin Price Action to Continue in Q4, 2024

As Bitcoin price continues its seven-month consolidation, investors need to focus on diminishing YTD returns for BTC that has dropped from 56% on October 20 to 52% as of this writing. Investors can expect this number to remain uncertain in the short term. However, the first of November could bring with it massive volatility due to the conclusion of the US presidential elections. Many industry veterans speculate that cryptocurrencies will likely rally regardless of who wins the elections. Regardless, if the bull run kickstarts in November, investors can expect a new ATH by December and Bitcoin’s market capitalization, which stands at $1,346.3 billion, to push toward the $2 trillion mark.

This confidence comes due to the fact that Bitcoin is currently in the fourth quarter, which is the most bullish phase through the year.

Bitcoin: The Largest Cryptocurrency

Together with Ethereum, the duo constitutes nearly 70% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization which stands at $2.40 trillion. Out of that, Bitcoin’s market cap stands at $1,346.3 billion, significantly higher than Ethereum’s $314 billion.

Despite the seven-month consolidation, Bitcoin’s $1.3 trillion market cap continues to dominate popular cryptos like Solana (SOL) and Ripple (XRP), whose market capitalization hovers around $78 billion and $30 billion.

BTC Trading Volume

The short-term outlook for BTC is bearish, but Wednesday’s late New York session rally promises a potential pullback to the upside. A closer look at BTC’s trading volume shows that it is $36.4 billion, and most of this is contributed by Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges. This platform alone contributes about 11% to the spot trading volume and nearly 41% to the perpetual trading volume. Other exchanges, like OKX, Bitget, etc, follow Binance.

Major Bitcoin Upgrades

With a market cap of $1.3 trillion, it is necessary for the network to remain secure, decentralized and scalable. This is possible by upgrading the Bitcoin network on a regular basis.

Here are some notable upgrades the Bitcoin network has received or planned to receive since its inception in 2009.

Bitcoin Network Upgrades Since 2009

Here are some key milestone upgrades to the Bitcoin network over the past decade.

• Taproot Upgrade (November 2021)

• Muir Glacier Upgrade (January 2020)

• Schnorr/Tapscript Upgrade (proposed, not activated)

• SegWit2x (canceled)

• Segregated Witness (SegWit) Upgrade (August 2017)

• Bitcoin Core 0.12.0 Upgrade (February 2016)

• BIP66 Upgrade (July 2015)

• Bitcoin Core 0.9.0 Upgrade (March 2014)

• BIP0016 Upgrade (May 2013)

• Pay-to-Script-Hash (P2SH) Upgrade (April 2012)

• Bitcoin Core 0.6.0 Upgrade (June 2011)

Bitcoin Price Prediction & Trends

The recent downtrend in Bitcoin price can be attributed to the ongoing seven-month consolidation. With the US presidential election coming to an end, investors can expect a breakout from this rangebound movement. A conclusion to this sideways move will be massive and highly volatile and could target liquidity on either side before heading to a new all-time high (ATH).

As a result, the next few weeks are critical in setting the tone for Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto markets.