Analysts Point to Returning “Appetite” for Bitcoin Amid Change in Market Sentiment

Bitcoin has been struggling to break through the US$65K (AU$95.8K) mark in the past weeks, twice peaking just below at US$64,791 (AU$95,577) and US$64,789 (AU$95,574). In a recent post on X, Santiment analysts suggest a nuanced response to the recent Bitcoin and altcoin market movements.

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They highlight a possible “rotation of capital from Bitcoin into altcoins”, as traders seek higher returns by diversifying risks away from Bitcoin and towards altcoins like ETH and SOL.

Traders are possibly reducing exposure, possibly due to uncertainty. The lack of ETH and SOL open interest is more due to them simply having less sensitivity toward BTC’s price than usual this month.

Santiment

They further suggest that the significant drop in Bitcoin’s open interest relative to smaller assets could signal that traders are anticipating the end of the recent market rebound and may be attempting to capitalise on peak prices.

The larger drop in BTC open interest, compared to smaller assets, points to traders potentially seeing the August rebound coming to an end and trying to sell the top (as other Santiment data is also showing evidence of).

Santiment

Market Dynamics Signal Increased “Appetite” for BTC

Analysts at Bitfinex however said the recent crypto rally coincided with a notable increase in the positive correlation between Bitcoin and US equities, signalling a renewed risk appetite in the market.

BTC registered a daily move up of 6.06 percent on August 23rd with a lot of short open interest removed from the market. It marked the second highest daily move since May 20th. We believe such an extreme move is a sign of risk appetite returning to markets.

Bitfinex

Looking through the macro lens, the analysts said that Jerome Powell’s recent speech suggests forthcoming changes in monetary policy, primarily due to labour market dynamics showing signs of a slowdown, which may lead to interest rate cuts.

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Other notable macro-level events according to the analysts are that China secured the extradition of a suspect involved in a US$14 billion (AU$20.65 billion) crypto pyramid scheme from Thailand, Franklin Templeton’s expansion of its blockchain presence by integrating its on-chain money market fund into the Avalanche network and finally BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) which has just surpassed $1 billion (AU1.47 billion) in net inflows.