Key Points
- Bitcoin surpassed the $100,000 mark, hitting a new all-time high of $104,088 on December 5.
- Traders are shifting their focus to altcoins like Ethereum, Render, Sui, Pepe, Hyperliquid, and Ondo for potentially higher returns.
Bitcoin achieved a new milestone by breaching the $100,000 price point on Wednesday, December 5. This significant achievement was coupled with notable capital inflows into Spot Bitcoin ETFs and an increase in BTC options trade volume.
Bitcoin’s Future and Altcoins to Watch
Following Bitcoin’s surge to $100,000, traders are now eyeing the next promising altcoin, expecting greater returns as the cycle progresses. The altcoin season is in full swing with altcoins like Ethereum, Render (RNDR), Sui (SUI), Pepe (PEPE), Hyperliquid (HYPE), and Ondo (ONDO) attracting attention.
The Bitcoin Pi cycle top indicator predicts that Bitcoin will break past $125,494 before this market cycle tops. Currently, Bitcoin is 22% below this target, but its dominance has climbed nearly 2% in two days, indicating more potential upside.
The altcoin season is flourishing, with 75% of the top 100 altcoins outperforming Bitcoin over a 90-day period. The network realized profit/loss metric on Santiment shows that traders are consistently profiting from their Bitcoin holdings, with several large spikes observed between October 8 and December 5.
Altcoins Gearing for Gains
The altcoin season index by Blockchain.centre suggests that altcoins could continue to outperform Bitcoin, as they have in the past 90 days. The top five tokens to watch this week are Render, Sui, Pepe, Hyperliquid, and Ondo.
Ethereum is also on an upward trend, potentially targeting its previous all-time high at $4,878 if it maintains its momentum. For this to happen, the Ethereum price needs to break above the significant $4,000 level.
As Bitcoin dominance continues to rise, traders are rotating capital to altcoins, XRP, and Solana-based meme coins and artificial intelligence tokens. Over $135 million in shorts were liquidated in the past 24 hours according to Coinglass data, and Bitcoin’s rally to $104,000 has added nearly 12% in open interest and 125% in options trading volume.
Ki Young Ju of CryptoQuant argues that this cycle is different from previous ones. Institutional investors buying Bitcoin have no interest in rotating into altcoins, implying that altcoin price rallies rely on an influx of capital from retail traders across crypto exchange platforms.
The total crypto market capitalization, excluding Bitcoin, is still 8.5% below its 2021 cycle top of $1.71 trillion. As retail traders inject capital into crypto exchanges, the market cap is expected to climb past $1.57 trillion. The chart is crucial for traders looking to rotate into altcoins while Bitcoin remains above $100,000.
This article does not provide investment advice and is intended for educational purposes only.