Bitcoin (BTC) Begins the Week on a High, Jumps Above $64K

Crypto majors moved higher Monday while memecoins led weekend action. PLUS: China stimulus announcements fell short of expectations, but traders’ hopes remain high.

Bitcoin (BTC) price rose above $64,000 in Asia on Monday, as traders pinned their hopes on a China stimulus and increased demand in certain bitcoin-related assets drove gains in major cryptocurrencies.

BTC price rose 2% in the past 24 hours, tracking gains in major altcoins, with ether (ETH), Solana's SOL and XRP remaining largely flat, while BNB Chain's BNB rose 3%. The broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index, which tracks the biggest 24-hour gainers among the top 200 tokens by market capitalization, rose 2.19%.

Some memecoins dominated the weekend price action, as talks of a “supercycle” continued among traders. Mog (MOG) extended seven-day gains to nearly 20%, while SPX6900 – a parody of the S&P500 index – extended gains to 135%. A CoinGecko tracker showed Bitcoin-based memecoins and Runes – a protocol for assets on the blockchain – rose as much as 10% over the weekend to extend weekly gains above 100%, but pared gains in the past 24 hours.

Interest in memecoins comes amid low market volatility in more serious crypto sectors, such as layer-2s or storage, and rising negative sentiment around tokens backed by venture capital funds – which are increasingly perceived as overpriced and a bad bet for retail traders.

BTC's move higher came as Chinese stocks ended the morning session higher, buoyed by renewed stimulus hopes. Per Bloomberg, Finance Minister Lan Fo'an promised new steps to support the property sector and hinted at greater government borrowing at a Saturday briefing.

However, the announcement fell short of expectations and suggested a low probability of continued outflows into China-linked assets.

“Bitcoin prices did manage to jump this morning to above $64K as Chinese equities rebounded off the weekend disappointments, so risk sentiment will likely remain in 'buy everything' mode until further notice,” Augustine Fan, head of insights at SOFA, told CoinDesk in a Telegram message.

“A strong BTC inflow on Friday might be a positive sign of things to come as we head into the final weeks of the election campaign, but patience will likely be required before we can make new ATHs anytime soon,” Fan said, referring to the U.S. elections scheduled for November 5.

U.S. markets saw relatively firmer data last week, with both CPI and PPI on the stronger side. Markets were initially confused by the data impact but ultimately decided that the 'core' inflation trend remained intact, and the curve steepening move continued.

U.S. equities made new all-time highs, with high beta names and the dollar breaking out further, as markets continue to expect an over 85% chance of a 25 basis point cut by the Federal Reserve in December.