The onset of October provided insights into bitcoin’s potential performance during a month traditionally associated with favorable returns. On October 2, market analysis revealed a spike in bitcoin’s value, reaching $87,217, a level not observed since September 23. However, this didn’t last long, as the cryptocurrency quickly retreated to $84,250, just shy of its weekly opening of $84,720. A revival over the weekend saw bitcoin’s price increasing by more than $1,200, culminating in a closing price of $85,500, reflecting a modest weekly increase of nearly 1% and pushing its market capitalization above $1.7 trillion.
Major Altcoins Show Little Movement as Ether Rises by 0.4%
Bitcoin’s price stability was mirrored across leading altcoins, many of which exhibited stagnant weekly results. Ether ($ETH) largely followed bitcoin’s trajectory, hitting a low on September 28 before climbing to $2,754 on Thursday. Despite a rapid sell-off, $ETH gradually recovered, settling at around $2,700. By Sunday afternoon (3:45 p.m. EST), $ETH was trading slightly above $2,700, marking a weekly rise of 0.4%.
BNB emerged as one of the few high-cap altcoins to post weekly gains exceeding 1%, increasing from $778 to $789. Additionally, Quant (QUANT) and Hedera (HBAR) were among the standout altcoins, recording impressive increases of 39% and 9%, respectively.
Conversely, privacy-focused coin Zcash (ZEC), which was among the top-performing high-cap altcoins in September, finished the week down 17%, plummeting from over $1,600 to $1,332 by Sunday. Other altcoins that experienced significant declines included Rain (RAIN), down approximately 9%; Near (NEAR), down 8.6%; and Uniswap (UNI), down 7.3%. Bitcoin Cash ($BCH), which had surged weeks earlier following announcements regarding CME $BCH futures, concluded the week down by 5.2%.
This mixed volatility among altcoins resulted in a decrease in their overall market cap, which fell from $1.3 trillion at the beginning of the week to $1.285 trillion by Sunday.