Crypto Pushes Through Headwinds While Traditional Markets Stumble
Jobs numbers and fears of further rate hikes may be dragging traditional markets down
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Crypto stocks are jumping today while US stocks overall are declining. Strength in the crypto sector is being powered in part by rising bitcoin and ether prices, up 2.83% and 1.42% since 8 pm on Sunday.
Coinbase rose 7.6%, reversing some of its bad fortunes after the stock lost some steam when the SEC served the company a Wells notice on March 22. The embattled crypto exchange ticked up 3.1% Thursday. Similarly, digital asset investment firm Galaxy Digital rose almost 6%, nearly making up for its losses last week.
Cryptocurrency mining companies are also breaking out, with Riot Blockchain and Marathon Digital each making double digit gains after losing about 8% in value in the first week of April. Stronghold Mining also continued its steady rise from last week.
MicroStrategy, the largest publicly traded corporate holder of bitcoin, spiked nearly 8%. The company’s crypto reserves now boast 140,000 BTC.
This comes as the broader market appears to be weakening and the job market is slowing, a labor department report indicated last week. The NASDAQ ended the day slightly in the red, and some analysts think this is a trend that will continue.
Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda, said that this week is pivotal in determining where markets go from here.
“US stocks are weakening as investors are anticipating the next inflation report will seal the deal for another quarter-point rate hike by the Fed. This is the week that could tell us that the US consumer is no longer showing resilience and in fact is rather weak,” Moya wrote in a note Monday.
He also pointed out that bitcoin (BTC) remains above $28,000 despite “broad weakness across most risky assets.”
“It seems Bitcoin Hodlers remain unfazed that the Fed will likely deliver one more rate hike and that the US economy is headed towards a recession this year,” Moya wrote.
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