The world's largest crypto is staging a nice rebound Monday after an ugly start to September saw the price dip below US$53,000 at one-point last Friday.
Bitcoin (BTC) was changing hands just above $57,000 at press time, up 5% over the past 24 hours and outperforming the broader market gauge CoinDesk 20 Index's 4.2% advance. Ether (ETH) still trails relative to Bitcoin and the broader market, up 3% to US$2,341.
Crypto Gains Come with US Stocks Rise, which also faced the consequences last week. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 boosted up 1.15% today.
Even with the big bounce today, bitcoin remains lower by about 3% for September and down more than 20% since hitting a record high above US$73,000 in March.
"Unfortunately, potential upcoming near-term catalysts for bitcoin are sparse at the moment," wrote Greg Cipolaro, global head of research at NYDIG, in his weekly update. As many have noted, Cipolaro pointed out that August and September have been notoriously weak months for bitcoin prices. The good news, he says, is that October and the fourth quarter in general have tended to be good for price action.
The fourth quarter remains a few weeks off, and between now and then, said Cipolaro, bitcoin bulls might only be able to look to factors outside of crypto for positive catalysts. Among them would be macro news like employment, inflation and Federal Reserve policies. There's also the November presidential election, and while candidate Donald Trump has made very friendly overtures to crypto, far less is known about Kamala Harris' position.
"We won't speculate on which candidate may win the election, but November could be an important inflection point for the market," Cipolaro said. "Until then, however, bitcoin could still be at the mercy of the broader market environment."