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The Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) price closed out September trading for US$18,694, give or take a few dollars depending on your time zone.
As we flipped our calendars over into November, BTC was swapping virtual wallets for US$20,548.
That puts the world’s original crypto up a healthy 9.9% in October.
For some context, the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQ: .IXIC) finished the month up 3.9%, while here in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) gained 6.0%.
Bitcoin price gains outperform
Atop the outperformance in October, the Bitcoin price moves were less volatile than most crypto investors may have expected.
Over the month, the token traded for a low of US$18,320 and a high of US$$20,988, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Yes, that’s a 14.5% price variance. But remember, Bitcoin gained 9.9% over this time. A rather smooth ride for the virtual asset notorious for its volatility.
And it wasn’t just Bitcoin. Most altcoins joined the rally in October.
Despite inflation remaining concerningly high, crypto investor sentiment took a turn for the bullish amid hopes that the US Federal Reserve and other global central banks might not need to raise interest rates as rapidly or as high as the markets have widely priced in.
Higher rates have thrown up some turbulent headwinds to cryptos, which have suffered sell-downs alongside other risk assets, like high-growth tech shares.
Now what?
Where the Bitcoin price heads next will, to a large extent, continue to hinge on interest rates. Particularly the policies adopted by the highly influential Fed.
Remember, Bitcoin hit all-time highs of US$$68,790 on 10 November last year, as the world approached the end of more than a decade of ever-lower rates.
But October did throw out some early signs that the Bitcoin price may be decoupling from risk assets, like tech shares.
Simon Peters, market analyst at eToro, explained that the crypto had held up well despite some disappointing earnings results from the biggest US tech companies.
That looks to be because the percentage of longer-term holders, generally less likely to sell, reached all-time highs last month.
“These high ownership levels signal why we may be seeing a decoupling between US equities and Bitcoin,” he said.
Peters added:
At the current price, it is unlikely that entities apart from Bitcoin miners would want or need to sell Bitcoin, whereas given stock market conditions and the negative forecasts from companies reporting earnings, there is perhaps a greater inclination to sell stocks.
