Bitcoin Eyes $67K After Halving as Altcoins Primed for Short Squeeze, Hedge Fund Says

Crypto
markets
climbed
higher
Monday
with
bitcoin

(BTC)
nearing
$67,000
as
fears
about
a
deeper
correction
allayed.

Bitcoin,
which
underwent
its
quadrennial
halving
event
during
the
weekend
cutting
the
issuance
of
new
supply
in
half,
climbed
over
3%
over
the
past
24
hours,
recently
changing
hands
at
$66,500.
Ether

(ETH)
held
steady
near
$3,200,
but
lagging
with
its
1.5%
advance
during
the
same
period.

Crypto’s
strong
showing
was
broad-based,
with
163
out
of
173
cryptos
in
the

CoinDesk
Market
Index
(CMI)
posting
positive
daily
returns.
The
broad-based

CoinDesk
20
Index
(CDI)
gained
over
3%
during
the
day,
led
by
layer-1
blockchain
Near
Protocol’s
native
token

(NEAR)
up
15%.

The
bounce
extended
to
digital
asset-focused
stocks,
with
shares
of
crypto
exchange
Coinbase
(COIN)
and
MicroStrategy
(MSTR)
rallying
7%
and
12%.

Publicly
listed
miners
Riot
Platforms
(RIOT)
and
Hut
8
(HUT)
surged
15%-20%,
while
Marathon
Digital
(MARA)
advanced
6%
during
the
day,
after
transaction
frenzy
caused
a

spike
in
fees
–
an
increasingly
important
revenue
source
for
miners
–
gave
hopes
for

better
bottom
lines
for
the
companies.

Read
more:



Bitcoin
Halving
Is
Poised
to
Unleash
Darwinism
on
Miners

Markus
Thielen,
founder
of
10x
Research,
said
Thursday
in
an

interview
with
CoinDesk
TV
that
bitcoin’s
halving
“is
not
a
bullish
event”
and
warned
of
market
weakness
for
the
next
few
months,
with
potentially
a
deeper
correction
in
the
cards.
The
key
reason
would
be
miners
offloading
their
BTC
inventory
worth
$5
billion
to
keep
their
operations
steady
after
having
their
revenue
cut,
he
explained.

On
the
longer
outlook,
though,
the
past
three
halvings
were
followed
by
an
exponential
move
higher
for
bitcoin’s
price
about
50-100
days
after
the
event,
crypto
hedge
fund
QCP
Capital
pointed
out
in
a
Monday
market
update.
“If
this
pattern
is
repeated
this
time,
BTC
bulls
still
have
a
few
weeks
to
build
a
larger
long
position,”
the
report
said.

The
fund
also
noted
that
funding
rates
–
the
cost
leveraged
derivatives
traders
need
to
pay
for
keeping
their
positions
open
–
cooled
off
from
very
hot
levels,
and
even
turned
into
deep
negative
territory
for
some
smaller
cryptocurrencies,
making
them
ripe
for
a
swift
move
higher
if

risk-appetite
returns.

“What
we
could
see
in
the
short-term
is
a
short-squeeze
led
by
altcoins
and
memecoins
which
have
seen
persistent
negative
funding,
with
some
as
deep
as
-100%
[annualized],”
QCP
Capital
said.
“Improving
speculative
sentiment
could
see
short
covering
and
a
resumption
of
leveraged
longs.”