Bitcoin (BTC) recently traded near $30,165, down 0.9% over the past 24 hours and a comedown from its one-year high over $31,300. Despite this, Markus Thielen, head of research for crypto service provider Matrixport, wrote in a Sunday report that July has been a historically strong month for Bitcoin, with returns of 24%, 20%, and 27% in the past three years. “Therefore, the probability that Bitcoin will be 10-20% higher during the next 30 days is high,” Thielen wrote. “Bitcoin could be at $33,000 to $36,000 by August.”
Thielen noted that Bitcoin had followed a pattern this year of rising about $10,000 before falling $5,000. He added that BTC’s strongest rallies have occurred during U.S. trading hours, “a sign that U.S. institutions are buying Bitcoin while other regions are less active.”
The expiry of Bitcoin options contracts this Friday could also fuel an additional price increase, or send it spiraling in the immediate aftermath. “If Bitcoin builds momentum above $30,000 as expiry approaches, dealers will buy the cryptocurrency in the spot and futures markets,” CoinDesk Co-Managing Editor of Markets Omkar Godbole wrote.
Katie Talati, head of research for crypto asset management firm Arca, said that a developer proposal to change Ethereum’s maximum validator balance from 32 ETH to over 2,000 “shouldn’t have an effect on the price of ETH necessarily.”
Talati was cautiously optimistic about investors’ enthusiasm following the spot Bitcoin ETF filings over the past 10 days. “The bigger problem is that most people don’t realize that ETF approval is going to be a while away, if it happens,” she said. “The SEC has taken a very strong anti-crypto stance.”