Bitcoin Price Reclaims $66,000, Ethereum Sees Modest Gains After BTC Halving

Bitcoin and Ethereum, which experienced a spate of last-minute volatility ahead of the BTC halving on Friday, have since recovered from their roller coaster ride.

At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is up 1.6% in the past day, hovering around $66,000 after having reclaimed that milestone for the first time in a week.

The cryptocurrency's block reward halving, which occurred on Friday, saw the reward paid to Bitcoin miners reduced from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC. Although it's usually the catalyst for bullish price action, the effect isn't always immediate.

There's one thing that did change right after the halving: Bitcoin transaction fees. For a short time over the weekend, the average fee to send BTC soared to an all-time high of $127 according to Bitinfo Charts. That's largely down to the launch of Casey Rodarmor's Runes protocol.

The Runes protocol picks up where BRC-20s left off. BRC-20 is a fungible token standard, which itself makes use of the Ordinals protocol and was developed by the pseudonymous dev domo. Runes is an attempt to make the process of creating fungible tokens on Bitcoin more efficient.

So where does Bitcoin go from here？ Analysts at IntotheBlock, a blockchain analytics firm, say that BTC is currently sitting a strong support level—which they argue could make it more resistant to downward pressure.

“Bitcoin is currently positioned right on top of a key demand zone, with 1.66 million addresses having purchased it at an average price of $64,800,” they wrote on Twitter. “This price point could potentially act as a strong support level should the market experience further downward pressure.”

ETH, meanwhile, bounced back above $3,000 on Friday and has managed to maintain that price level throughout the weekend. At the time of writing, the Ethereum price is sitting just above $3,200. That's a 1.3% gain in the last 24 hours and only around 1% shy of its price this time last week.

There could potentially be some good news on the horizon for Ethereum and Bitcoin. Hong Kong has conditionally approved spot ETFs for both assets. Firms there believe they'll get the green light to begin issuing shares before the end of the month. When trading does begin, analysts are predicting that it could help dispel unease around cryptocurrencies in the region, potentially bringing $25 billion worth of new liquidity into the market.