Leading cryptocurrencies surged Monday, with Bitcoin breaking through $70,000 after an almost five-month hiatus.

What Happened: The world’s largest cryptocurrency breached the elusive level late evening, building on the positive momentum from the weekend. In intraday trading, BTC hit a high of $70,212.27, according to data from CoinMarketCap. It is pertinent to mention that the apex coin is currently trading almost 5.3% below its all-time high of $73,750.07 which it touched eight months ago on March 14, 2024.

Ethereum also sailed to $2,585 after shifting sideways for the early part of the day.

The latest surge boosted Bitcoin’s monthly gains to more than 10%, raising expectations from a month that has previously witnessed 21% gains on average.

The rally erased over $100 million in downside bets in the last 24 hours, with total liquidations exceeding $172 million.

Bitcoin’s Open Interest blasted 7.03% in the last 24 hours, implying heightened speculative interest.

The number of traders longing the leading cryptocurrency beat those betting against it by a factor of 1.07, as per the Longs/Shorts Ratio.

Market sentiment remained in the “Greed” zone, according to the Cryptocurrency Fear & Greed Index.

Top Gainers (24-Hours)

The global cryptocurrency market cap stood at $2.35 trillion, following an increase of 1.98% in the last 24 hours.

Like cryptocurrencies, stocks started the fresh trading week on a high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average popped 273.17 points, or 0.65%, to close at 42,387.57. The broad-based index S&P 500 added 0.27% to end at 5,823.52, while the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite gained 0.26% to finish at record highs of 18,567.19.

Investors were looking forward to a busy week of third-quarter earnings as five out of the “Magnificent 7” were set to report their numbers later this week.

See More: Best Cryptocurrency Scanners

Analyst Notes: Popular cryptocurrency analyst Rekt Capital noted Bitcoin’s breakout from the months-long bull flag.

“The only condition for the breakout to be fully confirmed is for the price to remain above $69000 for the rest of the week,” said the analyst.