Bitcoin Ranges Steady Despite Tech Downtrend

The correlation trends between crypto markets and both the US dollar and the Nasdaq has weakened this week

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by axel rangel

share

key takeaways

  • “​​The increase in GBP this week along with other currency instabilities has led to a stronger bid and narrative for bitcoin which we haven’t seen in some months,” Katie Talati, director of research at Arca, told Blockworks
  • Coinbase Global (COIN) dropped by 9.5% after it was recommended as an underweight stock by Wells Fargo

The British pound reached record lows this week, dipping to $1.03 — sending shockwaves across world markets and adding unease to the already sharp interest rate increases in the United States.

Although the US Dollar Index has been trending upwards on a monthly scale since May this year, six of the 11 Wall Street stock indexes slipped by over 2%, as concerns around a global economic slowdown linger. 

The price of Coinbase Global (COIN) also dropped by 9.5% in the past 24 hours as of 2:00 pm ET, following a downgrade from Wells Fargo to “underweight” on Thursday. 

In previous years, inflation often correlated to a boost in local interest to purchase cryptocurrencies, Serhii Zhdanov, CEO of EXMO, a UK-based cryptocurrency exchange, told Blockworks. 

However, the crypto bear market cascaded by the crashes of multiple cryptoassets has damaged reputation and interest in cryptocurrencies, he said. 

“Cryptocurrencies are no longer perceived as hedge assets,” Zhdanov said.

All things considered, the prices of both bitcoin and ether remained relatively stable.

Waning correlation with tech

Bitcoin briefly rose by 2.7% over the past week from roughly $18,000 last Thursday to a peak of  $19,600 today.

The leading cryptoasset has traded in a range between about $18,500 and $20,300 since Sept. 13.

Similarly, ether’s price has also remained steady over the past week, increasing by around 4% from $1,270 last Thursday to roughly $1,300 today.

Katie Talati, director of research at Arca, notes that “in general, crypto is very negatively correlated with the US dollar, particularly bitcoin, which makes sense as bitcoin is a monetary replacement to the US dollar.”

Bitcoin and the broader crypto markets have tended to be strongly correlated with the tech-heavy Nasdaq index (QQQ).

But both correlation trends have shifted noticeably this week — that is, BTC is less correlated with tech and more correlated with the dollar, rather than its typical inverse relationship.

Correlation coefficient between BTC and QQQ — Positive values mean the assets trade together | Source: TradingView
Correlation coefficient between BTC and DXY — Negative values mean the assets trade inversely | Source: TradingView

“​​The increase in GBP this week along with other currency instabilities has led to a stronger bid and narrative for bitcoin which we haven’t seen in some months,” Talati said. 

Other cryptocurrency tokens prices that were noteworthy this week include troubled lender Celsuis’s CEL token, which dipped from $1.5 to $1.3 after CEO Alex Mashinsky announced that he would be stepping down from his position. Cosmos’ ATOM token, which surged to almost $17 on Sept. 17 in the run-up to the Cosmosverse conference this week, has since dropped back to roughly $12 as the conference concludes.

In the following week, Talati said that some of the tokens that she will be keeping an eye out for include Chiliz’s CHZ token and Algorand’s ALGO token, which will be featured during the FIFA World Cup in November, and Apecoin, as it prepares to launch staking at the end of October. 

She added that “[ether] is top of my list as post-Merge, any new supply is locked up and new supply emitted is far lower than when Ethereum was a PoW chain. I believe the market is very much undercounting this trend.”

Macauley Peterson contributed reporting.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Featured.png

Research

Helium stands at a pivotal moment in its evolution as a decentralized wireless network, balancing rapid growth, economic restructuring, and global expansion. With accelerated growth in domestic DAUs and Hotspots supporting its network, Helium is leveraging strategic partnerships and innovative proposals to scale internationally. The recent implementation of HIP 138, “Return to HNT,” has unified its token economy under HNT, simplifying participation and strengthening liquidity, while HIP 139’s phase-out of CBRS refocuses efforts on scalable Wi-Fi offload. Meanwhile, governance shifts under HIP 141 raise questions about centralization as Nova Labs consolidates control over the roadmap.

article-image

The DeFi Education Fund has ideas on how the crypto-friendly SEC can bring Commissioner Peirce’s vision to life

article-image

“Be prepared to do more with less,” Framework Ventures’ Michael Anderson said

article-image

Q1 may have been “frustrating,” but things are looking brighter for Q2

article-image

Tokens worth 20% of the current supply of the TRUMP memecoin launched by the president are set to be unlocked tomorrow

article-image

A crypto-industry lawsuit is “moot” now that Joint Resolution 25 has been signed into law

article-image

Fed Chair Powell assured markets that the labor market is in “good place,” dependent on price stability