Leading cryptocurrencies retreated Thursday as investors took a cautious approach before the eagerly awaited U.S. labor market data.

What Happened: Bitcoin surged to $71,500 during the day on the European Central Bank's rate cut, but faced strong resistance immediately, bending below $71,000. The King Crypto has wobbled in a narrow trading range since May 20.

Ethereum witnessed strong selling pressure, dropping below $3,850. 

Open Interest in Bitcoin futures rose 0.18%. An increase in OI coming alongside a drop in price typically indicates the opening of new short positions, interpreted as a bearish sign.

That said, the number of traders taking long positions for Bitcoin increased vis-à-vis those shorting the asset in the last 24 hours.

Investors looked forward to the nonfarm payrolls data to move the market in either direction.

The Cryptocurrency Fear & Greed Index flashed "Extreme Greed" ahead of the data, suggesting that traders were anticipating a strong move upwars, possibly a breach of Bitcoin's all-time high.

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The global cryptocurrency market cap stands at $2.62 trillion, narrowing 0.74% in the last 24 hours.

Stocks edged lower on Thursday, pulling back from record highs seen a day before. The S&P 500 ended 0.02% lower at 5,352.9 points. Tech-focused Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.09% to 17,173.12. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 78.84 points, or 0.20%, to close at 38,886.17

The investors were focused on Friday's  nonfarm payrolls report, looking for signs of a weakening labor market that could justify rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

The report comes after the European Central Bank cut rates for the first time in five years on Thursday, raising expectations of similar policy easing by the Fed.

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Analyst Notes: On-chain analytics firm Santiment noted lower crowd enthusiasm for Bitcoin's $70,000 level currently compared to 3 months ago.

"Generally, the lack of FOMO is a good sign that BTC and other coins can break through with less crowd euphoria that previously caused tops," Santiment stated. 

.https://x.com/santimentfeed/status/1798765274029806021

Popular cryptocurrency analyst Rekt Capital predicted fresh capital infusion into the altcoin market if Bitcoin manages to break out of the ongoing range.

British multinational bank Standard Chartered issued a bullish forecast for Bitcoin earlier, predicting a rise to $100,000 by November, and $150,000 if Donald Trump comes back to power.

Photo by Matt Benzero on Shutterstock

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