The market has come to a standstill again, but the pullback isn’t too bad; it hasn’t broken the trend. In fact, Bitcoin has managed to hold steady at 67,000, and the previous pressure around 65,000 hasn’t posed any threat yet.
The good news is that just last weekend, according to documents from the SEC, the SEC approved the applications for spot Bitcoin options from both the New York Stock Exchange and the Chicago Options Exchange. This means that 11 Bitcoin ETF institutions trading on the New York Stock Exchange can now offer spot options services, which is really amazing.
The approval of options means Wall Street can leverage more, using a small amount of call options to gain larger future spot Bitcoin holdings. With the introduction of leverage, new incremental funds will naturally flow in. So it’s not an exaggeration to say that new billions are quietly entering the market.
This recent Bitcoin rally has been characterized by low volume, which is very healthy as it shows a strong market consensus for upward movement without too much selling pressure.
This is similar to the rally that started in September last year. In contrast, higher volumes usually indicate reversals, like the classic bottom reversals seen in the volume spikes of last August and this August. Similarly, Bitcoin showed high volume this March, signaling the end of the bullish trend.
As for altcoins, we will see if this round of altcoin activity continues. The Ape token that rallied a few days ago has now dropped back down, and the rumored DYDX addition has also returned to its starting point, indicating that retail sentiment hasn’t really picked up.
The main players seem to be following the market to cash out for now. This pump has a similar pattern to previous plays, and those who try to imitate often have a harder time succeeding.
Here are some altcoins to keep an eye on:
- The gaming sector: Most of the tokens launched since last year by a certain company are in the gaming sector, but during the first round of altcoin activity at the beginning of the year, gaming almost didn’t make a move. After a year-long wash-out where highs dropped nearly 90%, it’s just now starting to gain some traction again. Though BigTime doubled recently, it’s still relative growth after falling tenfold from its peak.
- MEME sector: GOAT has reached a new high of 580 million, and AI MEME continues to gain traction. Flavia surged by 62,000%, ranking first, and it’s very likely that MEME will continue throughout this cycle. For instance, in the recent launch of the new DEX PixelSwap in the TON ecosystem, three of the six trading pairs are MEME tokens.
MEMEs tend to gain significant heat before elections. Of course, if you’re feeling bold, you can try your luck betting on a certain candidate’s victory; then that candidate’s tokens might just skyrocket.
SOL outperforms BTC and ETH
Solana continues to perform strongly, maintaining a price of $171 at the time of writing. Ethereum (ETH) saw a nearly 10% decline from its peak of $2,769 on October 20, erasing the gains made over the previous 10 days. Though it has stabilized around $2,500 now, it’s still down 6% over the past 30 days.
The likelihood of ETH breaking back above the $2,800 support level is decreasing, and on-chain data shows that high transaction fees are driving some activity to other blockchains, reducing the demand for native staking on the Ethereum network.
Even though Ethereum’s average transaction fee over the past two weeks was $4, indicating strong on-chain activity, it has also increased the competitiveness of low-cost blockchains.
According to DefiLlama, Solana’s trading volume reached $13.4 billion over the past week, which is 67% higher than Ethereum’s trading volume during the same period. This gap has widened significantly compared to early October when their trading volumes were roughly equal.
More importantly, in the seven days leading up to October 24, trading volume on Ethereum’s DEXs fell by 13%, with Uniswap and Curve Finance’s activities declining by 18%. In contrast, Solana’s Raydium saw a 42% increase in trading volume, while Lifinity skyrocketed by 77%.
On-chain data shows that Ethereum is showing disadvantages in competition with other networks, as Solana’s Total Value Locked (TVL) grew by 12%, related to popular topics like AI and memes, with meme tokens flying in trading volume also supporting SOL’s price.