The second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum (ETH) climbed to new all-time highs of $2955 during Saturday trading. On a 7-day basis, Ethereum price has risen by nearly 29% with ETH market capitalization, reaching a record $340 billion.
Ethereum began its ascent on April 25 while bullish news that the European Investment Bank is launching a “digital bond” sale on the Ethereum blockchain further spurred the rally to fresh all-time highs. A cryptoanalyst noted that ‘Ethereum has reached a new all-time high for the fourth time in five days.’
Accross the alternative cryptocurrencies space, selected tokens such as Dogecoin (+11.25%), Solana (+12.42%), AAVE (+11.95%), Huobi Token (+27.71%), Maker (+13.04%), Compound (+10.00%), OKB (+59.64%) have posted impressive performances in the last 24 hours.
Generally, exchange tokens have risen generally alongside the broader cryptocurrency market. In particular, exchanges that use their own tokens to power their ecosystems have seen their native cryptocurrencies surge in value.
An example of this is the OKEx exchange token, OKB (OKB). Since the start of the year, OKB has grown significantly in valuation from around $7 to $37.49 (as seen on FTX) by May 1st.
Why May Is Set To Be Historic for Bitcoin and Altcoins
On April 29, nearly $4 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC) options contracts expired, this is quite significant as a trend since October 2020 indicated that the expiration of the monthly options contracts has proven to be a catalyst for Bitcoin bullish near-term moves. The trend noticed that in the 10 days following the past six monthly expiries, Bitcoin has amassed gains ranging from 7% to 35%.
In March, for instance, Bitcoin price had a pullback to around $50k in the prior week before the March 26 options expiry. Nearly two weeks after, Bitcoin rose to set all-time highs of $64,899 on April 14. Should history rhyme once again, Bitcoin may be due for further gains over the coming weeks in May. Also, the month of May marks exactly twelve months after Bitcoin’s halving event. Bitcoin was historically said to rally immensely 12-15 months after each halving event.
Bitcoin Monthly Returns, Courtesy: Bybt.com
Also from historical data, May remains a positive month for Bitcoin. Past data for Bitcoin price in the last eight years showed an average gain of 18% for Bitcoin in May. There have only been three Mays where Bitcoin suffered losses which occurred in 2013 (-8.56%), 2015 (-3.17%), and 2018 (-18.99%).
Back to Altcoins, the ETH/BTC pairing climbed higher in a move that was predicted by several analysts. The breakout of Ethereum against Bitcoin is causing many traders to expect a strong rally on ETH/BTC and Altcoins in the near to medium term.
In the past 24 hours, led by Ethereum, the Altcoin market gained against Bitcoin, causing Bitcoin dominance to fall to 48.3% on CoinMarketCap, the lowest level since August 2018.
RektCapital, a cryptocurrency trader and analyst spoke along this line:
‘ETH/BTC has performed a historic monthly candle close. Historically, monthly closes above this black level have resulted in a fantastic upside. Not only for #ETH / $BTC…But for other Altcoins in their BTC pairs, as well this is only the very beginning of a historic new macro uptrend.’
Image Credit: Bybt.com, Shutterstock
