The convergence of political dynamics, renewed interest in BTC ETFs, and macroeconomic factors like the debasement trade are all contributing to Bitcoin’s surge toward $68,000. Bitcoin ETFs are playing a pivotal role in this rally, attracting increased inflows and clearing key technical levels as investors seek exposure to Bitcoin in traditional financial markets. Payments processor Stripe is ‘engaged in exclusive negotiations’ regarding the acquisition of the stablecoin fintech platform Bridge and Trump’s WLFI token only raised $12.5 million by the time of writing – much less than his intended goal.

The crypto market remains in the greed territory today, with the Crypto Fear & Greed Index decreasing from 73 to 71. Bitcoin (BTC) has shown positive momentum, trading above $68,000 in the past 24 hours. Despite recent fluctuations, the overall market sentiment leans towards greed.

Quick Market Updates 

• Prices (UTC+8 8:00): BTC: $67,618, +0.81%; ETH: $2,611, +0.14%

• 24-hour Long/Short: 50.7% / 49.3%

• Yesterday’s Fear and Greed Index: 71 (73 24 hours ago), level: Greed

Crypto Fear & Greed Index | Source: Alternative.me

Read More: Ethereum’s Future, Bitcoin's Price Surge, and Q3 Insights: Crypto Market Flatlines at $2.3 Trillion: Oct 15

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1. Trump’s probability of being elected president on Polymarket rose to 60.5%, a record high. Musk donated $75 million to support Trump.

2. Trump’s family crypto project $WLFI updated token terms: non-transferable within one year, no plans to create a secondary market currently. Also, Trump’s son will attend the Bitcoin MENA Summit. 

3. Crypto exchange Kraken launched re-staking on the Ethereum-based protocol EigenLayer.

4. Stripe is in advanced talks to acquire Bridge, a fintech company focused on stablecoins

Payments processor Stripe is ‘engaged in exclusive negotiations’ regarding the acquisition of the stablecoin fintech platform Bridge – a move that could signify an even greater foray into the ever-expanding alternative payments technology market. 

Last month, Bridge completed a Series A funding round and raised $40M, where Sequoia Capital was the lead investor. The company has developed a platform that allows creation, custody and exchange of stablecoins including GUSD and USDC.

With the increasing use of stablecoins as a means of payment, Stripe had also begun to execute stablecoin transfers. In the previous week, the company revealed that merchants in the USA would be able to process cryptocurrency payments for the USDC stablecoin, having not ventured into the digital tokens market for nearly six years.

The Italian government is contemplating a significant increase in the capital gains tax on Bitcoin, potentially raising it from 26% to a steep 42% by 2025. Deputy Economy Minister Maurizio Leo made the announcement during a press conference at Palazzo Chigi on October 16, where he discussed Italy’s new budget bill recently approved by the Council of Ministers.

According to Leo, this proposal to raise the withholding tax on Bitcoin profits is part of the broader changes included in the budget bill. He also noted the removal of the minimum revenue threshold for Italy's "web tax" or Digital Services Tax (DST), which has applied to companies earning at least 750 million euros annually and 5.5 million euros from digital services in Italy. 

This potential tax hike follows Italy's decision in late 2022 to increase the capital gains tax on crypto trades exceeding 2,000 euros to 26%, a move made as part of the 2023 budget.

World Liberty Financial’s website shows its WLFI token is far under the $300 million goal it set for public sale. Source: World Liberty Financial

The Trump family’s new crypto platform, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), faced a rocky start with its token sale on October 15, raising only 3.4% of its $300 million goal on the first day. The WLFI token, priced at 1.5 cents each, had 20 billion tokens available for public sale, but only over 837  million, roughly $12.5 million worth, were sold at the time of writing.

Despite the platform claiming to have 100,000 sign-ups before launch, Etherscan data  revealed only 6,832 unique wallets holding the WLFI token. Compounding the disappointing sales, the platform’s website crashed due to overwhelming traffic, rendering it unavailable for several hours.

Donald Trump, the project’s "Chief Crypto Advocate," took to social media on October 15 to promote the token sale, saying, “Crypto is the future, let’s embrace this incredible technology and lead the world in the digital economy.” His sons, Eric, Barron, and Donald Jr., are also listed as "Web3 Ambassadors" for the project.

The most popular virtual currency in the world, Bitcoin (BTC), unusually increased to $68,323  on 16th October 2024. It has been 80 days since we saw a similar price level on June 7th. So, what’s behind this sudden surge? Most people point to a BlackRock’s Q3 earnings call that took place about 2 days earlier. As Bitcoin price approaches the $70,000 mark, for some experts it is no longer far fetched to consider the possibility of a major breakout soon.

Within the past week, Bitcoin appeared to be on the longer path towards the piece of $68,323  last week it has reached in nearly 3 months. This increase is impressive because this is the first time that there has been such a strong confidence coming from the market given that earlier in the year the market had been a bit shaky. On October 16th, Bitcoin was in a very strong bullish trend mainly fueled by strong growing institutional demand, a healthy state of the economy, and positive structures in the charts.

A majority of such rally appears to be tracing its roots to the BlackRock Q3 earnings report and the recent talk of their intentions to increase towards the crypto market. For quite a number of months, there has been a watchful eye on BlackRock, and their persistent foray into digital assets is ensuring that there is hope.

Source: KuCoin BTC Price Last 24 Hrs 

Read More: Crypto Surpasses $67,000, Tesla Moves $770 Million BTC, Bitcoin ETFs Surge and More: Oct 16

In summary, the convergence of political events, renewed interest in Bitcoin ETFs, and macroeconomic factors are fueling Bitcoin’s upward trend towards $68,000. Bitcoin ETFs are playing a central role in this rally, with significant inflows pushing prices higher as investors seek traditional market exposure to BTC. Meanwhile, Stripe’s acquisition talks with Bridge underscore the increasing mainstream adoption of crypto payment technologies. Additionally, Trump’s WLFI token sale fell short of expectations, and Italy considers a steep Bitcoin tax hike. These events illustrate the evolving landscape and growing institutional interest in digital assets.