Bull market momentum continued to boost prices across the cryptocurrency ecosystem on Monday as Bitcoin (BTC) hit a fresh all-time high above $72,700 while numerous altcoins saw double-digit gains to start the week. 

It was the opposite story for stocks, which fell under pressure at the market open and struggled to regain their footing as investors await Tuesday’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) reading to get a better sense of what comes next regarding interest rates. Following last week’s hotter-than-expected jobs report, Wall Street became less certain about the first rate cut coming in May and now pegs the chances of a rate cut in June at 70%. 

At the closing bell, The S&P and Nasdaq finished lower, down 0.11% and 0.41%, respectively, while the Nasdaq gained 0.12%. 

Data provided by TradingView shows that an early morning bearish assault on support at $68,000 was soundly rejected by bulls, who then proceeded to push the price action higher, hitting a record high of $72,970 in the afternoon.

BTC/USD Chart by TradingView

At the time of writing, BTC trades at $72,110, an increase of 3.8% on the 24-hour chart. 

Positive catalysts

“Bitcoin has recorded yet another all-time high, a cause for celebration for long-term long-only investors, but challenging for short-term traders and risk-takers,” said a report from analysts at Bitfinex. “Such sharp moves in the market have resulted in significant liquidations for long and short-positioned traders.”

“Last week alone, on March 5th when BTC reached a new high, the reversal that followed as prices retraced, led to nearly $900 million in long liquidations, the highest for a single day in three years,” they noted. 

“Underlying spot demand for BTC, however, remains strong, as evidenced by continued substantial inflows into the spot Bitcoin ETFs,” they said. “Despite the volatility on March 5th, the same day saw the highest amount of ETF inflows so far in March, indicating continued robust investor interest.” 

“The altcoin sector is also witnessing a significant resurgence, with the Total3 index climbing to over $720 billion in terms of market cap,” the report said. “This uptick reflects a broadening interest in alternative cryptocurrencies, with a particular – and puzzling focus – on Meme coins, as well as AI-related projects.”

“The AI sector, especially, has seen an explosion of interest and development, with new projects being launched and existing ones expanding, highlighting the potential for synergies between AI and blockchain,” the analysts noted. “Speculation has also flooded into dog and even cat-themed tokens, and has spilled over into increased trading volume of tokens on the Solana blockchain – which some of the Meme tokens are built on – reaching levels close to that of Ethereum.”

“In the broader macro economy, there was a deceleration in the growth of the services industry, balanced, however, by a significant uptick in new orders,” the report said. “Inflation shows signs of easing as the price index for business inputs has dropped from a recent peak. Despite this, the labour market remains robust, with job openings holding steady, and continuing to challenge the Federal Reserve’s goals to cool the market and consider rate reductions.”

Along with developments like the upcoming halving helping to boost Bitcoin’s price, the top crypto is also benefiting from positive press, including comments from former U.S. President and current Presidential candidate Donald Trump that his administration may take a positive position on cryptocurrency if he were to be elected to the White House again.

“[Bitcoin has] taken [on] its own life. Sometimes I do little things for fun and, you know, make money with it,” Trump said. While he said that he has not personally purchased Bitcoin directly, he “[will] sometimes let people pay through Bitcoin.”

“If you think of it, it’s an additional form of currency,” Trump said. “They’re crazy new currencies. That’s what I call them, you know, whether it’s Bitcoin or others.”

These comments were a notable change from his opinion of Bitcoin while in office when he called cryptocurrency a “scam” and reportedly told Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to “go after Bitcoin.”

And Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square, caused a stir when he suggested that now might be a good time for him to make his first allocation to Bitcoin as its price looks poised to see substantial upside. 

“A Scenario,” Ackman tweeted. “Bitcoin price rise leads to increased mining and greater energy use, driving up the cost of energy, causing inflation to rise and the dollar to decline, driving demand for Bitcoin and increased mining, driving demand for energy and the cycle continues.” 

“Bitcoin goes to infinity, energy prices skyrocket, and the economy collapses,” he said. “Maybe I should buy some Bitcoin.”

Altcoins start the week out strong

It was an overall positive day for the altcoin market as a majority of tokens in the top 200 recorded gains on Monday. 

Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360

Celo (CELO) was the biggest gainer with an increase of 48.2%, followed by a gain of 28.3% for Moonbeam (GLMR), and a 26.4% increase for Metis (METIS). Ribbon Finance (RBN), Gala (GALA), and Jupiter (JUP) were the biggest losers, recording declines of 8.4%, 8.1%, and 6.3%, respectively. 

The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $2.71 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 52.2%.