Bitcoin continued to rise toward its all-time price high of nearly $66,000 on Monday. The cryptocurrency was up about 5% over the past 24 hours, indicating a rise in bullish sentiment.
Equities and cryptocurrencies are rising as central banks in Europe and the U.S. appear to be in no rush to raise interest rates. Despite plans to ease monetary stimulus, market participants generally view low interest rates as supportive for assets deemed to be risky.
Still, once seasonal strength for cryptos and equities fade, next year could be difficult for risk assets.
?The Federal Reserve has started gently reining in its bond purchase program, and could well tighten more sharply in the months to come, potentially triggering a mini sell-off,? Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, a British financial services company, wrote in an email to CoinDesk.
?What is particularly worrying is that many investors get caught up in the fear of missing out on rapid price gains and have borrowed money to invest in highly risky strategies,? Streeter wrote.
For now, charts suggest further upside in bitcoin if a breakout above $66,000 is confirmed this week. ?Bitcoin has ample room to rise on the technical analysis side, as the bulls have built-up strength during the first cryptocurrency?s month-long consolidation,? Alex Kuptsikevich, a market analyst at FxPro, wrote in an email to CoinDesk.
Despite lower trading volume in the spot market, ether?s option volumes have risen to their highest level since May. Increased trading activity in the option market has coincided with a breakout in ETH to an all-time high of around $4,700.
?Option volumes generally increase when markets turn volatile and traders take directional bets as buyers of options have a potential to earn high gains while keeping their losses limited (due to a non-linear option payoff),? crypto research firm Kaiko wrote in a blog post.
?However, despite low levels of volatility, option volumes recently hit their highest level since May,? Kaiko wrote.
Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day higher.
Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):
Notable losers: