Leading cryptocurrencies retreated Wednesday as investors booked profits on recent advances.

What Happened: Bitcoin temporarily breached $66,000 during Asia trading hours but failed to sustain its gains as markets opened in Europe and the U.S. Profit-taking pulled King Crypto to the mid-$64,000s.

Ethereum also dipped below $3,500, even as the stage was set for the final approval of ETFs tracking the price of the second-largest cryptocurrency.

In the past 24 hours, liquidations worth $125.76 million were recorded, with long liquidations accounting for 68% of the total.

Bitcoin's Open Interest dropped by 1.97% in the last 24 hours, indicating forced closing of longs.

That said, the number of traders placing bullish leveraged bets on Bitcoin exceeded those taking downside bets, as seen by the Longs/Shorts Ratio.

The Cryptocurrency Fear & Greed Index dropped to 61 due to the pullback. However, the dominant market sentiment remained one of "Greed."

Top Gainers (24-Hours)

The global cryptocurrency market stands at $2.36 trillion, down 1.40% in the last 24 hours.

Stocks pulled back Wednesday after gains in the first two days of the week. The broader market index, the S&P 500 slipped 1.39% to end at 5,588.27. The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite shed 2.77% to end at 17,996.92, its worst performance since December 2022. The Dow Jones Industrial Average defied the slump, gaining 0.59%, to close at a record high of 41,198.08.

Investors, optimistic about interest rate cuts by the Fed, have started to rotate capital from large-cap technology shares to small-cap companies. The Russell 2000 index has jumped 10% since the beginning of July.

According to CME's FedWatch tool, traders anticipate a 93% chance of a rate cut in September.

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Analyst Notes: Widely-followed cryptocurrency trader Rekt Capital said that Bitcoin isn't ready to retest the $65,000 level as a new support successfully.

The trader stated that a retest is imperative to confirm a move into the $65,000-$71,500 region.

Another well-known trader, Roman, predicted additional drops into the $60,000-$63,000 range as confirmation of the bullish bias.

"Not seeing continuation so far so we're keeping both scenarios in mind. Gut still says we revisit $55,000-$58,000, " the trader opined.

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