Bitcoin Price Surges During US Trading Hours, Gains 12% in October

Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has seen a remarkable increase in its price during the US trading hours in October, according to a recent report by CryptoCompare. The report analyzed the hourly price movements of bitcoin across different time zones and found that the US session accounted for 12% of bitcoin’s 23% monthly gain.

What Drives the US Session Rally?

One of the possible factors behind the US session rally is the growing anticipation of a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Several bitcoin ETF proposals are currently under review by the SEC, and some analysts believe that the regulator could greenlight one or more of them by the end of this month.

A bitcoin ETF would allow investors to access the cryptocurrency market without having to buy, store, or manage the underlying asset. This could boost the demand and liquidity for bitcoin, as well as lower the barriers to entry for institutional and retail investors.

Another factor that could be driving the US session rally is the increasing adoption of bitcoin by mainstream companies and celebrities. For example, Twitter, the social media giant, recently enabled bitcoin tipping for its users, allowing them to send and receive bitcoin through the Lightning Network. Moreover, several prominent figures, such as Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, and Tom Brady, have expressed their support and enthusiasm for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

How Does the Rest of the World Compare?

The CryptoCompare report also revealed that the Asian and European sessions had a smaller impact on bitcoin’s price movements in October. The Asian session, which covers the time zones of China, Japan, Korea, and Singapore, contributed 6% to bitcoin’s monthly gain, while the European session, which covers the time zones of the UK, Germany, France, and Italy, contributed 5%.

The report noted that the Asian session was affected by the regulatory crackdown on the cryptocurrency industry in China, which banned all crypto-related activities and transactions in late September. The report also suggested that the European session was influenced by the macroeconomic uncertainties and the COVID-19 situation in the region.

What Does the Future Hold for Bitcoin?

Bitcoin, which is currently trading at around $52,000, has recovered from its mid-year slump and is approaching its all-time high of $64,000, which it reached in April. Many experts and analysts are bullish on the future of bitcoin, as they expect more adoption, innovation, and regulation to support its growth.

Some of the factors that could propel bitcoin to new heights include:

• The launch of the first bitcoin ETF in the US, which could happen as soon as this month.
• The adoption of bitcoin as a legal tender by more countries, following the example of El Salvador, which became the first country to do so in September.
• The development of the Lightning Network, which is a second-layer solution that enables fast and cheap bitcoin transactions, and could increase the scalability and usability of bitcoin.
• The emergence of new use cases and applications for bitcoin, such as decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and gaming, which could expand the utility and value of bitcoin.

Bitcoin, which was created in 2009 by an anonymous person or group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, is the first and most popular cryptocurrency in the world. It is a decentralized, peer-to-peer, and open-source system that allows anyone to send and receive value without intermediaries or censorship. Bitcoin has a limited supply of 21 million coins, which are generated through a process called mining, and are secured by a network of computers called nodes, which validate and record transactions on a public ledger called the blockchain.