Leading cryptocurrencies made a sharp U-turn Monday, mirroring the pullback in stocks, as the ‘Uptober’ rally takes a halt.

What Happened: Bitcoin went downhill throughout the day, dipping to an intraday low of $66,580. The retracement occurred just one day after the leading cryptocurrency surpassed $69,000 for the first time since early June.

Ethereum saw a steeper decline, falling back into the $2,600 zone. On Sunday, the second-largest cryptocurrency hit its highest level since the first week of August.

Total cryptocurrency liquidations surged to $204 million in the last 24 hours, with over $174 million longs being wiped out. 

Bitcoin’s Open Interest dropped by 2% in the last 24 hours, while Ethereum’s speculative market contracted by 3.75%.

The pullback triggered bearish sentiment as the number of traders shorting Bitcoin rose compared to those bullishly leveraged on the asset, as per the Long/Shorts Ratio.

That said, market sentiment remained in the “Greed” zone as of this writing, according to the Cryptocurrency Fear & Greed Index.

Top Gainers (24-Hours)

The global cryptocurrency stood at $2.33 trillion, contracting 2.14% in the last 24 hours.

Stocks pulled back Monday, giving up gains from last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 344.31 points, or 0.80%, to end at 42,931.60. The S&P 500 fell 0.18% to 5,853.98. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite defied the slump, gaining 0.27% to end at 18,540.01.

The retrace followed record closes for both the Dow and the S&P 500 on Friday, marking the sixth consecutive week of gains for Wall Street.

Investors expected the upcoming third-quarter earnings of premium tech companies like Tesla Inc. TSLA and Amazon.com Inc. AMZN to drive the markets.

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Analyst Notes: A widely followed cryptocurrency analyst, operating under the pseudonym Emperor, advised his followers not to hesitate to buy Bitcoin dips between $62,000 and $63,000.

He added that the area between $66,000 and $66,500 could be a good area of support and short-sellers could take profit at these levels.

“My target of $69,000 has now been hit and I’m looking to relong dips,” the analyst remarked.

Another well-known cryptocurrency market observer, Michaël van de Poppe, noted that whale activity was high despite Bitcoin approaching its all-time highs.

“In essence: that’s a great sign for Bitcoin, but a terrible sign for the global economy,” Van De Poppe remarked.

Image via Shutterstock

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