Bitcoin price is on the verge of pushing into a new historic high. The cryptocurrency embarked on an aggressive uptrend this week as institutional activity made an aggressive comeback.
Bitcoin price ushered in the weekend with a strong rally, which pushed as high as $124,645 on Friday. This price tag was less than 1% away from its highest price tag achieved in August.
The cryptocurrency exchanged hands slightly above $121,756 at the time of observation after a slight pullback, noted in recent Bitcoin news.
However, new all-time highs (ATHs) were still on the horizon and likely to take place if Bitcoin (BTC USD) price maintained the bullish momentum into the weekend.
The king of the cryptocurrencies was not yet overbought. However, its RSI was significantly diverged away from its moving average, which could signal a potential price snap back.
This may manifest in the form of an aggressive profit‑taking event if the bulls run out of steam.
Bitcoin (BTC USD) Price Rally was Backed by Aggressive Social Sentiment
Aside from the resurgence of institutional activity, the return of the Bitcoin bulls was also characterized by a spike in social sentiment, as noted in Bitcoin news today.
Recent LunarCrush social sentiment data revealed that BTC USD surged to a new local high courtesy of a massive spike on Thursday.
According to the social sentiment data, one out of three crypto‑related social posts was about Bitcoin. This symbolized the rising interest in BTC, and hence the price correlation.
Strong social sentiment historically tends to encourage heightened retail participation. Whales tend to use retail as exit liquidity, so whale outflows may reveal whether the rally will extend or give way to capitulation.
Whale activity data on Coinglass revealed that there was noteworthy profit‑taking as Bitcoin price pushed higher.
Whales contributed net outflows worth $97.8 million in the last 24 hours. This was on the spot market across Binance, Coinbase and OKX.
The derivatives segment also signaled bearish expectations. Whale net short positions worth close to $1.8 billion were executed on Friday.
These outflows may slow down the ascent for BTC USD price. Large enough outflows, combined with weaker demand, may set the pace for a retracement.
Overall Market Sentiment Leans Towards Uptober
Rising outflows from whale addresses threatened to trigger another retracement but outflows were still relatively subdued. However, there were a few contrarian factors to consider.
For example, the Uptober narrative has been gaining traction. This is a term that has been coined by the crypto community courtesy of BTC’s tendency to maintain bullish momentum in October in past years.
The expectation that Bitcoin price will retain the same trend this October may trigger a positive feedback loop.
However, it is also worth noting that such expectations may also create an opportunity for market manipulation. In which case, sharp pullbacks are to be expected, which may trigger liquidation events.
Bitcoin (BTC USD) news may not always follow an expected trend as evidenced by its performance in September.
A month that has historically been bearish (mostly), but it still managed to conclude the month with a 5% plus gain.
Its performance may have signaled that BTC was about to embark on a bullish mission. Institutions tend to buy BTC aggressively when they anticipate a trend that will likely last beyond a few days.
Interestingly, Bitcoin ETFs acquired over $2 billion worth of BTC this week. This occurred after ETFs demonstrated weak performance in September.
It was also worth noting that Bitcoin dominance ticked up slightly in the last few days but still remained well below 60%.
This could indicate that altcoin season was still at play, in which case some of the top altcoins may experience aggressive demand.