Leading cryptocurrencies surged Monday, with Bitcoin breaking through $70,000 after an almost five-month hiatus.

What Happened: The world's largest cryptocurrency breached the elusive level late evening, building on the positive momentum from the weekend. In intraday trading, BTC hit a high of $70,212.27, according to data from CoinMarketCap. It is pertinent to mention that the apex coin is currently trading almost 5.3% below its all-time high of $73,750.07 which it touched eight months ago on March 14, 2024.

Ethereum also sailed to $2,585 after shifting sideways for the early part of the day.

The latest surge boosted Bitcoin’s monthly gains to more than 10%, raising expectations from a month that has previously witnessed 21% gains on average.

The rally erased over $100 million in downside bets in the last 24 hours, with total liquidations exceeding $172 million.

Bitcoin's Open Interest blasted 7.03% in the last 24 hours, implying heightened speculative interest.

The number of traders longing the leading cryptocurrency beat those betting against it by a factor of 1.07, as per the Longs/Shorts Ratio.

Market sentiment remained in the "Greed" zone, according to the Cryptocurrency Fear & Greed Index.

Top Gainers (24-Hours)

The global cryptocurrency market cap stood at $2.35 trillion, following an increase of 1.98% in the last 24 hours.

Like cryptocurrencies, stocks started the fresh trading week on a high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average popped 273.17 points, or 0.65%, to close at 42,387.57. The broad-based index S&P 500 added 0.27% to end at 5,823.52, while the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite gained 0.26% to finish at record highs of 18,567.19.

Investors were looking forward to a busy week of third-quarter earnings as five out of the "Magnificent 7" were set to report their numbers later this week.

See More: Best Cryptocurrency Scanners

Analyst Notes: Popular cryptocurrency analyst Rekt Capital noted Bitcoin's breakout from the months-long bull flag.

"The only condition for the breakout to be fully confirmed is for the price to remain above $69000 for the rest of the week,” said the analyst.

On-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant attributed Bitcoin's ongoing pump to heightened activity on cryptocurrency exchange Binance.

Analysis showed that Coinbase Premium, an indicator of U.S. institutional buying power, decreased alongside Bitcoin's price rise. 

"This phenomenon is clearly driven by Binance whales involvement," CryptoQuant added.

Image via Shutterstock

Read Next:    

• ‘Asia’s MicroStrategy’ Metaplanet Buys Another $10.4M In Bitcoin, Exceeds 1,000 BTC Holdings