Crypto Price Today: Bitcoin struggles to hold $26,500; Ethereum trades above $1,550; Altcoins mixed

Bitcoin and other crypto tokens were struggling on Thursday as the buyers remained on the sidelines despite a strong rally in the equity market and a fall in a bond-yields. The US PPI for September was a bit stronger than expectations, while US Fed's minutes showed most expect another round of rate hikes to complete the current tightening cycle.

In other reports,  the Hamas terrorist organization and its affiliates have received millions, about $93 million, in crypto donations between August 2021 to June 2023, said Wall Street Journal based on data from Elliptic, a forensics firm, and BitOK, a Tel Aviv software company. Crypto is often accused and criticized as a subterfuge financing method for such militant groups.

Bitcoin was seen in the falling trajectory as the largest crypto token dropped about a per cent but managed to hold $26,500-levels. Its largest peer, Ethereum, was also seen in red, falling maringally but it was holding above $1,560-mark. Action in the altcoins was on the mixed side.

Bitcoin's price dipped below $27,000 as market participants await the US inflation data for September. This signals an active effort by bears to gain control of the market, said Edul Patel, Co-Founder & CEO at Mudrex. "Bitcoin will now need to break through the $27,000 resistance or could potentially receive support around $26,600. Ethereum is trading around the $1560 mark," he said.

All top crypto tokens were trading mixed on Thursday. Among the losers, Litecoin dropped about 3 per cent, while Solana was down about 2 per cent. Dogecoin and Polkadot shed about a per cent each. Among the gainers, Chainlink rallied more than 2 per cent, while Toncoin was up about a per cent.

The global cryptocurrency market cap was trading lower, dropping to $1.05 trillion-mark, as it declined less than half-a-per cent in the last 24 hours. However, the total trading volumes rose over 2 per cent to $25.81 billion.

BTC gained a significant downward momentum as it has continued to slide for three days in a row post touching the all-important $28,500-mark. Even though the $26,500 mark is currently acting as support, any further decline may again lead to a further sell-off that is likely to take Bitcoin down to $24,000 or beyond, said Shubham Hudda, Senior Manager at CoinSwitch Markets Desk.

"In other news, big development has been seen in the traditional banking sector as one of the world’s largest banks- JPMorgan’s in-house blockchain Onyx has launched its tokenized collateral network," he said. "Investors across financial markets, including crypto, are looking forward to the US CPI data, which is expected to be out later in the day."

Image: Crypto-chart-price

Tech View by WazirX Trade Desk
The REQ utility token, introduced in 2017, plays a crucial role in upholding the reliability and robustness of the Request Network, a decentralized payment system built on the Ethereum platform that empowers individuals to request payments and securely receive funds.

Image: Chart-Request

On the weekly time-frame, the price for REQ/USDT surged by nearly 50% in the last week. The trend is traversing within a descending channel pattern and has recently bounced off from the bottom trendline and is on the verge of a pattern breakout with a considerable buildup of volume. The next resistance is expected at 0.14 USDT and a strong support is expected at 0.061 USDT.


(Views and recommendations given in this section are the analysts' own and do not represent those of Business Today. Please consult your financial adviser before taking any position in the asset/s mentioned.)

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