On Friday, bitcoin reached its highest price since late July, coming within just $2 of breaking through the $69,000 mark. Recent data shows the cryptocurrency market has been on a consistent upward trend, with the entire digital asset economy now valued at $2.35 trillion, reflecting a 2.63% rise over the last day.
Crypto Market Rallies, $113M Wiped in Liquidations as Bitcoin Soars Past $68K
At 2:45 p.m. Eastern Time on Oct. 18, 2024, bitcoin (BTC) hit an intraday high of $68,998 per coin. Earlier in the day, BTC pushed past the $68,000 mark after establishing a solid support level near $66,600. Following its peak, the price has been consolidating around $68,500 to $69,000, suggesting a strong resistance level near $69,000. Over the last 24 hours, BTC has climbed 2.6% against the U.S. dollar and posted a 9.1% gain over the past week.
At 4:33 p.m. on Oct. 18, 2024, BTC is trading for $68,493 per coin.
By around 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time, technical indicators gave a mixed reading on bitcoin’s momentum. The hourly relative strength index (RSI) sat at 63, indicating neutral conditions with no signs of the asset being overbought or oversold. On the flip side, both the Stochastic at 86 and the commodity channel index (CCI) at 129 pointed toward potential overbought conditions. Additionally, the momentum oscillator signaled a bearish outlook at 902, hinting at slowing upward momentum.
Despite these mixed signals, the moving averages (MAs) remain firmly bullish. Major exponential and simple moving averages, including the 10-day, 20, 30, 50, 100, and 200-day MAs, all reflect positive trends. Shorter-term averages (10, 20, 30 days) are hovering between $67,800 and $68,500, providing solid near-term support. Longer-term averages sit below the current price, with the 200-day MA resting between $64,700 and $65,500, reinforcing a stable foundation.
Today’s price bump triggered $113.81 million in short position liquidations across the broader crypto market, especially when BTC broke past $68K. Bitcoin shorts accounted for $24.01 million of the liquidations, while $15.93 million came from ethereum shorts. In total, around 37,878 traders were liquidated across the crypto market, with the largest single liquidation order being an ETH-USDT-SWAP on Okx, valued at $3.5 million. At current values, BTC is just 6.9% lower than its all-time price high on March 14 when it neared the $74K range.
What are your thoughts on today’s price action? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
