Bitcoin bounces back to an 18-month high …where crypto prices are headed next

Bitcoin -3.19 percent and other cryptocurrencies rallied Thursday, bouncing back to retest 18-month highs after a correction earlier in the week. Analysts see more upside if digital assets can continue the momentum. The price of Bitcoin has advanced 4% over the past 24 hours to $37,350, having earlier traded near $37,900. Testing levels reached last week marked its highest level since cryptos plunged into a brutal bear market in May 2022. The largest digital asset had slumped in recent days, falling back to the $35,000 zone, but the rally that has carried it some one-third higher over the past month—ending a prolonged period of subdued crypto trading—now appears to have resumed. “The crypto market experienced a new growth spurt,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, an analyst at broker FxPro. “For now, it is not giving up... The chances of further gains are higher than a reversal to the downside. If we accept that Tuesday’s decline was a correction, it has opened the way to $45,000 to $46,000.” Bitcoin remains buoyant on the back of a number of factors, including ongoing optimism that regulators will soon approve the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), which would be expected to usher in a fresh wave of investor interest. A brightening macroeconomic backdrop has also helped, lifting cryptos alongside the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 amid hopes that the Federal Reserve has finished raising interest rates. That said, there do appear to be looming risks for digital assets. Analysts at J.P. Morgan, for their part, believe the crypto rally is overdone. Tailwinds from the possible spot Bitcoin ETF approval are overblown, gains expected over the next year from a change in supply are mostly priced in, and the regulatory backdrop remains unfavourable, the analysts said in a recent note. Beyond Bitcoin, Ether—the second-largest crypto—gained 3% to $2,050. Smaller tokens or altcoins were more mixed, with Cardano climbing 10% but Polygon -2.96 percent falling 2 percent. Memecoins saw big gains, with Dogecoin at 2.37 percent, jumping 10 percent, and Shiba Inu at 0.80 percent, 7 percent higher.