Bitcoin bulls seem intent on maintaining the US$20,000 support as the third quarter kicks into gear, with an early-trade price of US$20,363 signalling a 6.32% day-on-day upshot.
Q3 is historically an underperforming quarter, so the next few weeks could be the make-or-break period for bitcoin long investors hoping for a positive second half to 2022.
Ethereum also witnessed strong price movements, having rallied 10.38% to US$1,165 as the bulls steered the bellwether altcoin away from the US$1,000 resistance level.
The global crypto market capitalisation stands at slightly under $917.46bln, up over 6% underscored by a 53.6% increase in total trading volumes.
Big movers included move-to-earn (M2E) fitness project Stepn, decentralised finance (DeFi) protocol Convex Finance, the Polygon blockchain and metaverse project The Sandbox, all of which saw double-digit growth in the past 24 hours.
Following the news that Celsius paid off a large chunk of its US$200mln MakerDAO debt, the beleaguered lending platform rose over 15% to break above the US$1 barrier, which could prove a rallying cry for the short squeezers.
With bitcoin and ethereum posting strong daily gains, The Fear and Greed Index rose five points to 19, although this still places overall sentiment in the extreme fear category.
In less bullish news, crypto contagion seems to have spread even further, as Singapore-based crypto lender Vauld became the latest centralised finance (CeFi) platform to suspend user withdrawals.
A positive opening for Tuesday's trade all in all, with plenty of green candlesticks to be seen on the charts, although a sustained rally in a typically bearish quarter is far from a given at this point.