Bitcoin zoomed above $97,000, bringing hopes of breaching the landmark $100,000 level on social media, before paring gains to nearly $95,500 in Asian morning hours on Thursday.
BTC added 3.3% in the past 24 hours, data shows, ahead of a Thanksgiving weekend that has historically recorded sudden price dumps. Strength in BTC buoyed major tokens, with ether (ETH) outperforming with a 7% surge, XRP and BNB Chain rising 6%, and dogecoin (DOGE) adding more than 5%.
A CoinDesk analysis on Wednesday pointed out rising activity on ETH-linked futures and on-chain movements, indicative of traders expecting volatility to the update on the second-largest crypto asset.
Data shows a bump in revenue, fees, new wallets and on-chain volumes on Ethereum, with the past month showing elevated levels of activity compared to the period from May to September. Meanwhile, cumulative open interest in perpetual and standard futures contracts has surged to a record 6.32 million ETH, worth over $27 billion — all signs that support higher ETH prices ahead.
Elsewhere, DeFi tokens aave (AAVE) and uniswap (UNI) surged 9%, and memecoins pepe (PEPE) and mog (MOG) jumped more than 8% on their tendency to act as ether beta bets, as a CoinDesk analysis noted in May.
Traders at QCP Capital said in a Thursday broadcast that money flows are shifting to ETH, with broader equity markets supporting growth in risky asset classes.
“The market is shifting flows to ETH, as evidenced by a 13% surge in the ETH/BTC pair to 0.0366 from its post-election low of 0.0318,” QCP said. “ETH even outperformed the broader CoinDesk 20 Index, which rose just 0.5%.”
“Wall Street achieved record highs after President-elect Trump nominated Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary, lifting market sentiment. Bessent’s market-friendly approach and potential willingness to moderate Trump’s tariff policies fueled optimism, driving a broad rally across markets, with risky assets leading the charge,” QCP added.
Bessent runs Key Square Group, a macro investing firm. He worked for prominent investor George Soros three decades ago and is considered to be “one of the driving forces” behind Soros Fund Management’s famous bet — that netted a more than $1 billion profit — that the British pound would collapse.
In a July interview, Bessent said crypto “is about freedom” and that the crypto economy was “here to stay,” pointing out the asset class’ appeal among younger people who may have previously not participated in markets.