Bitcoin Regains Footing Ahead of Potential Upswing: Crypto Market Outlook

Omkar Godbole reports that, much like rock climbers who test their footing before ascending, Bitcoin has been consolidating its position since the release of the US jobs data on Friday. This data sparked recession concerns, causing Bitcoin's price to plummet before recovering to around $114,700. The cryptocurrency's drop led to approximately $670 million in losses on perpetual futures positions, with over $550 million of those being long positions, according to Coinglass. This reduction in excess leverage could pave the way for a more sustainable price increase. John Glover, Ledn's chief investment officer, predicts that Bitcoin will surge to around $140,000 by the end of the year. Meanwhile, 10x Research has identified the $111,965 level as an attractive entry point for traders, and the recent price rebound suggests that some investors have taken this advice. Canary Capital CEO Stephen McClurg believes that Bitcoin is emerging as a high-risk, high-reward asset that is closely tied to Nasdaq trends but with greater volatility. He also views stablecoins as the digital equivalent of money market funds. The latest nonfarm payrolls data revealed a significant slowdown in the labor market, which may lead to a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut in September. However, this development may not necessarily be beneficial for risk assets. This week's US CPI and PPI inflation readings will provide further clarity on the outlook. Ryan Lee, the chief analyst at crypto exchange Bitget, expects Bitcoin to trade between $112,000 and $118,000 this week, driven by strong technical indicators, while Ether is likely to range between $3,300 and $3,800 due to ETF inflows and institutional interest. Lee notes that rising ETH adoption and on-chain activity could lead to outperformance, but Bitcoin's dominance may limit significant altcoin gains unless market sentiment shifts further towards risk-on behavior. Over the weekend, a whale investor conducted a large buy-the-dip operation, purchasing millions of dollars' worth of ETH, demonstrating their long-term conviction in the cryptocurrency. In other news, Base has surpassed Solana in daily token introductions, driven by the growth of Zora's Creator Coins, according to Dune Analytics. Lido, a liquid staking platform, has laid off 15% of its workforce in a bid to focus on sustainable growth and operational efficiency. In traditional markets, S&P 500 futures rose by over 0.5%, while the dollar index increased by 0.2%. Morgan Stanley views Friday's stock market dip as a buying opportunity.