Bitcoin Nears $82K in Bullish Start to Week; Dogecoin Flips USDC

Bitcoin surpassed the $81,000 mark, driven by a continuous rally, high trading volumes over the weekend, and bullish futures market activity, with traders betting on further increases.

Dogecoin and Shiba Inu led the gains among major cryptocurrencies, with dog-themed tokens adding 30% over the past 24 hours.

Market moves follow Donald Trumps presidential win and anticipation around a strategic bitcoin reserve as per a July campaign promise.

Bitcoin zoomed above $81,000 late Sunday as a record-setting rally continued into its sixth day, boosting growth across all major and midcap tokens.

BTC added 5.6% in the past 24 hours, data shows, with trading volumes of nearly $100 billion over an unusually wild weekend session. Weekend pumps are generally considered bullish in the crypto market, as trading volumes typically decrease over the weekend when many institutional investors and professional traders are less active.

Futures premiums on BTC-tracked products are soaring, indicating a bias for bullish bets. The popularity of the $80,000 call on Deribit points to potential dealer hedging around the key level.

Dogecoin (DOGE) and shiba inu (SHIB) led gains among majors with a price jump of as much as 30%, with DOGE flipping xrp (XRP) and stablecoin USDC late Sunday to become the sixth-largest token. DOGE has jumped on renewed endorsements by technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, pushing it 88% in the past 30 days.

Other majors took a breather following a Friday rally. Ether (ETH), BNB Chain‘s BNB and XRP added under 4%, while Cardano’s ADA saw profit-taking after a 35% move higher on Sunday.

The broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20), a liquid index tracking the largest tokens by market capitalization, rose 4.5% in the past 24 hours.

Dog-themed memecoins led gains outside of majors with an average jump of 30%, CoinGecko data shows, followed by Solana-based memes and TokenFi launchpad tokens.

The weekend price action came on the back of a week that saw crypto-friendly Republican Donald Trump elected as U.S. president and a fresh round of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. recorded over $1.3 billion in net inflows on Thursday, breaking a March record of $1.1 billion, led by BlackRocks IBIT.

Traders are eyeing the $100,000 price level for BTC in the short term, as reported, in hopes that Trump will eventually launch a strategic bitcoin reserve after he takes office in January, as per a campaign promise he made in July.