October 17, 2024

BTC Open Interest Hits New High, Experts Await Bitcoin Price To Retest ATH

With Bitcoin price hovering 8% percent below its all-time high (ATH) of $73,949, the crypto market sentiment is extremely bullish. Analysts across the board expect this time to be different and are looking for a breakout rally that ends the seven-month consolidation. The reason for this optimism is the recent uptick in open interest to new highs on top of the 10% BTC rally in the past week.

Bitcoin Price Hovers As CME’s BTC Futures Open Interest Hits New Highs

The 10% rally in Bitcoin price pushed BTC to reach $67,000 in under ten days. The volatility and speed at which BTC overcame $65,000,a key resistance level has caused crypto markets to flip bullish. BTC price today hovers around $67,000, awaiting a push toward the $70,000 psychological level.

This crypto market enthusiasm is growing as CME’s open interest hit new notional all-time highs of 179,745 BTC on Wednesday, according to Vettle Lunde, K33 Research Analyst. Lunde adds, this staggering growth of 32,440 BTC since October 10, which represents a 40% weekly increase in investors’ exposure highlights that market participants are active and confident.

CME BTC Open Interest Hits New Highs

Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of CryptoQuant, said that Bitcoin open interest across crypto exchanges has reached an ATH of $20 billion. 

BTC Open Interest Across All Crypto Exchanges

The convergence of these two factors aptly reflects the crypto market sentiment that is bullish. It is also not surprising that investors are anticipating a potential breakout that retests the ATH for Bitcoin price.

A look at the Fear & Greed Index shows that the crypto market sentiment has also catapulted from fear to greed in the past week. 

Crypto Fear & Greed Index

Experts Forecast What’s next for BTC Price

According to DataNerd, Cumberland, a prominent crypto market maker, withdrew 1,755 BTC valued at roughly $118.54M withdrew from Binance. Moves like these often suggest that investors are confident about the future and are not looking to sell their holdings any time soon. 

Within 24 hours, #Cumberland withdrew totally 1,755 $BTC (~$118.54M) from exchanges: #Binance, #OKX, #Coinbase,…

Just now, he hodls 2,313 $BTC (~$155.84M) in his main wallet.

Address:https://t.co/p7PClw3TWp pic.twitter.com/qZ0FXM1tYO

— The Data Nerd (@OnchainDataNerd) October 17, 2024

Adding credence to this trend is the supply of BTC held on exchanges, which has plummeted by nearly 200K BTC in the past seven months. Typically, if supply on exchanges falls, it shows investors are increasingly confident about the performance of BTC, and this happens during the start of a Bitcoin price bull run.

BTC Supply on Exchanges

Abe, a popular crypto trader, acknowledged that the spike in OI coupled with orderbook delta, shows signs of a short-term mean reversion. He also pointed out that there isn’t a “high R:R to short here outside of short-term intraday trades” as the higher time frames still “look good.”

Delta is the difference between market buys and sells.

BTC/USDT 1-day chart

Eugene Ng Ah Sio, a high networth crypto trader, is also cautious heading into the elections. Eugene posted,

“BTC has overwhelmingly surprised to the upside vs my base case at the start of the month…. Given the elevated OI on BTC now, I am quite concerned with how much downside sensitivity we have especially as we edge closer to elections.”

Bitcoin Price Target & What’s Next

As mentioned in a previous CoinGape article, Bitcoin has hit $67,200, which was the first target to the upside after breaching the $65,000 hurdle. Based on this, Bitcoin price prediction hints at $70,000 to be next the target.

Beyond this level, BTC will likely sweep the all-time high of $73,949, leading to a new ATH. After this outlook is achieved, Bitcoin could most likely consolidate or correct, considering that this massive upswing started on October 10.

BTC/USDT 4-hour chart

On the other hand, if Bitcoin fails to hold above the $65,000 critical support level, it will signal a lack of bullish momentum and active sellers. Such a development could see BTC revisit the $62,000 foothold.

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