Bitcoin breaks $100,000 what to expect from Ethereum and altcoins

Bitcoin passed the $100,000 milestone on Wednesday and reached an all-time high of $104,088 on December 5. Crypto investor enthusiasm has been rewarded with significant capital inflows into Spot Bitcoin ETFs and an increase in BTC options trading volume.

Following Bitcoin’s rise to $100,000 (BTC), traders are looking for the next altcoin to switch their focus to, expecting higher returns as the cycle progresses. Capital rotation is likely as the altcoin season continues and altcoins such as Ethereum (ETH), Render (RNDR), Sui (SUI), Pepe (PEPE), Hyperliquid (HYPE) and Ondo (ONDO).

Bitcoin cycle top and where BTC goes after $104,000

The Bitcoin Pi cycle upper indicator predicts that BTC will surpass $125,494 before moving to the top of this market cycle. Bitcoin is 22% below target and its dominance has increased by almost 2% in two days.

Rising Bitcoin dominance indicates there is further upside potential and BTC could extend its gains. Interestingly, altcoin season is in full swing with 75% of the top 100 altcoins outperforming BTC in a 90-day period.

Bitcoin market cap dominance weekly and daily price charts | Source: TradingView

BTC is moving towards multiples of the 350-day moving average on the Pi cycle upper indicator, and the increasing dominance supports the bullish thesis for the largest cryptocurrency.

The profit/loss metric realized by the network on Santiment shows that investors are consistently making profits from their Bitcoin holdings. Several large increases were observed between October 8 and December 5, but this increase is relatively low compared to the increase in May 2024, when the BTC price was hovering around $70,000.

Larger and more intense increases in non-performing loan metrics could indicate the possibility of a correction in BTC due to an increase in selling pressure on crypto exchanges.

Bitcoin network realizes profit/loss against BTC price | Source: Santiment Altcoins to watch this week

Blockchain.centre’s altcoin season index shows that altcoins may continue to outperform BTC as they have in the last 90 days. The index helps determine whether altcoins in the top 100 cryptocurrencies ranked by market cap are gaining or lagging when compared to Bitcoin.

Altcoin season index | Source: Blockchaincenter

While most of the top 50 altcoins rose along with Bitcoin this week, the top five tokens to watch were Render, Sui, Pepe, Hyperliquid and Ondo.

Render rallied close to its March 2024 peak of $11.7613. A 35% increase from the current price could push RNDR to test resistance at $13.6330. Technical indicators, relative strength index and moving average convergence/divergence support the price increase thesis in RNDR.

The 161.80% Fibonacci retracement of the RNDR uptrend sets $16.9517 as the top of the cycle and price discovery targets this cycle.

RNDR/USDT daily price chart | Source: Crypto.news

SUI is almost 20% away from the psychologically important $5 target. Sui token is trading at $4.1588 on December 5, rising along with Bitcoin.

The RSI has moved above 70, typically this creates a sell signal for traders but the MACD can see the MACD line crossing above the signal line, which is a bullish sign for SUI.

SUI/USDT daily price chart | Source: Crypto.news

PEPE is poised to test the November 2024 peak of $0.00002597, approximately 17% above the current price level.

The RSI is trending upwards and below the 70 level, which means PEPE is not yet in overvalued territory. PEPE may enter price discovery once it surpasses its November peak; The price exploration target for PEPE is $0.00003348.

The target corresponds to the 141.40% Fibonacci retracement of the November price rise.

PEPE/USDT daily price chart | Source: Crypto.news

HYPE reached an all-time high of $0.12875 on Thursday. The token could rise to the psychologically important level of $0.15000, approximately 22% above the current price.

A successful break of this level could bring the $0.17689 target into play; This represents a 141.40% Fibonacci retracement of HYPE’s rise towards its all-time high.

Technical indicators support the thesis that there is a gain in HYPE price.

HYPE/USDT daily price chart | Source: Crypto.news

ONDO is trading at $1.74214 at the time of writing. The token is 12% away from its all-time high of $1.95063.

The RSI is sloping upwards, indicating that ONDO is currently overvalued at 86. While typically considered a sell signal for the token, the MACD flashes green histogram bars above the neutral line, signaling underlying positive momentum in ONDO price.

ONDO/USDT daily price chart | Source: Crypto.news Ethereum heads for gains

Ethereum is in an uptrend. If the altcoin maintains its bullish momentum, the altcoin could target the previous all-time high of $4,878.

ETH price needs to rise above the psychologically important $4,000 level to target the previous all-time high and enter this cycle into price discovery. With upcoming ecosystem developments and higher utility and adoption of layer 2 and layer 3 chains, Ethereum is poised to gain more.

The RSI is sloping upwards and rising above 70. The MACD indicates a positive momentum in the Ethereum price trend on the daily time frame.

ETH/USDT daily price chart | Source: Crypto.news Strategic considerations

As Bitcoin dominance continues its rise and XRP attempts to dethrone USD Tether (USDT) as the third-largest cryptocurrency, traders are shifting capital into altcoins, meme coins based on XRP and Solana (SOL), and AI tokens.

According to Coinglass data, more than $135 million in short positions were liquidated in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin’s rise to $104,000 resulted in a nearly 12% increase in open interest and a 125% increase in options trading volume.

Investors consistently make profits from Bitcoin, supporting the capital rotation thesis.

CryptoQuant’s Ki Young Ju argues that this cycle is different from previous ones. Institutional investors buying Bitcoin have no interest in moving into altcoins, and this means that altcoin price increases are dependent on capital flows from retail traders on crypto exchange platforms.

Traders need to monitor exchange user activity and altcoin market cap chart to determine the top cycle of altcoins this season.

Total crypto market capitalization, excluding Bitcoin, is still 8.5% below its 2021 cycle peak of $1.71 trillion. Market capitalization is expected to exceed $1.57 trillion as retail traders inject capital into crypto exchanges.

While Bitcoin remains stable above $ 100,000, the chart is important for investors who want to turn to altcoins.

Crypto market capitalization excluding Bitcoin | Source: Tradingview

Disclosure: This article does not constitute investment advice. The content and materials on this page are for educational purposes only.