Leading cryptocurrencies rallied Thursday as investors turned to Bitcoin amid a weak financial climate.

What Happened: Bitcoin reached an intraday high of $97,437.96 in the early trading hours, then fell to roughly $96,500 in the afternoon before making a fresh move past $97,000 overnight.

Ethereum peaked at $1,872.94 for the day before pulling back to $1,835. Both assets saw an appreciable spike in trading volumes.

Bitcoin's market dominance rose to a yearly high of 63.8%, implying that investors were more confident in the "King Coin" relative to other cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin’s uptick comes a day after the U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter, with investors possibly considering it as a safe haven in times of economic turmoil.

The upsurge resulted in $209 million in cryptocurrency liquidations, with $154 million in bearish shorts erased.

Bitcoin’s Open Interest exploded 8.21% to $66.93 billion in the last 24 hours, marking a jump in leverage and potential market volatility. Interestingly, despite the surge, the majority of Binance traders with open BTC positions were short as of this writing.

The market returned to "Greed" sentiment, according to the Crypto Fear and Greed Index.

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The global cryptocurrency market capitalization rose 2.02% to $3.01 trillion in the last 24 hours.

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Stocks began May on a high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 83.60 points, or 0.21%, to end at 40,752.96. The S&P 500 lifted 0.63% to finish at 5,604.14. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite spiked 1.52%, ending at 17,710.74.

The rally was catalyzed by strong first-quarter financials reported by tech biggies Microsoft Corp. MSFT and Meta Platforms Inc. META. The two ‘Mag 7' companies reported revenue and earnings that exceeded expectations, gaining 7.63% and 4.23%, respectively.

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Analyst Notes: Seasoned trader Peter Brandt said Bitcoin was on target to reach the bull cycle top between $125,000 and $150,000 by August or September if it can "regain the broken parabolic slope." From then on, Brandt projected a 50% pullback.

Typically, parabolic slope patterns are characterized by a steep, rapid, and exponential rise in price, followed by a sharp decline.

Cryptocurrency trader and analyst CryptoBullet stated Ethereum's mid-term correction is over, and the asset was primed for a "good" mid-term bounce.

"So in the next few months, I’m expecting a good rally: ETH & its ecosystem will bounce. My first target is $2500," the trader predicted.

Photo Courtesy: alfernec on Shutterstock.com

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