After a short lived dip, risk-on is back for crypto trading

Crypto recovered Wednesday, once again outperforming stocks after Tuesday’s inflation data sent bitcoin and ether into the red

article-image

PurpleRender/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Risk-on investing is back. 

Crypto outperformed equities Wednesday morning after better-than-expected inflation data fueled investor optimism that interest rate hikes are a thing of the past. 

Bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) posted gains of 1.4% and 1.6%, respectively, early in the trading session, recovering from Tuesday’s sharp decline that saw BTC dip below $36,000. The Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 indexes opened slightly in the green, each rallying less than 0.4%. 

Equities’ mild bounce Wednesday seems to be an extension of the Consumer Price Index-fueled rally on Tuesday, which saw the Nasdaq soar.

“Risk assets celebrated, with the Nasdaq jumping 2.4% yesterday. BTC rose almost 1.5% on the news, but then dropped sharply,” said Noelle Acheson, author of the ‘Crypto is Macro Now’ newsletter. “Bitcoin was not behaving like a risk asset that would benefit from higher liquidity.”

Source: TradingView

Ether posted a similar decline Tuesday, dropping as much as 3.5% and falling below $2,000 for the first time in a week. Even so, crypto seems to have rebounded and recouped their status as risk-on assets, at least for now. 

The dip, although apparently short lived, was likely spurred more by digital asset market narratives than the macroeconomic environment, according to Acheson. 

“One [explanation] is selling pressure from investors taking profits ahead of what could be another SEC delay of spot BTC ETF proposals,” she said. 

Read more: Bitcoin may be riding the ETF wave, but altcoins are where the rally really is 

“Friday is the deadline for a decision on the Hashdex and Franklin bitcoin spot ETFs. This could dent the optimism of those expecting an approval before the end of the year. Once the news is out of the way, we could see that speculative interest come back in.” 

CPI data for October showed a 0.3% increase in prices — excluding food and energy — and keeping the year-over-year inflation rate at 4.1%. It’s still a far cry from the Federal Reserve’s 2% annual inflation target, but inflation does appear to be cooling, giving traders enough confidence to bet on a rate-hike pause at the next Fed meeting in December. 

Optimism that the central bank can hit its inflationary goals without a major economic downturn is also increasing, DataTrek Research co-founder Nicholas Colas said, perhaps fanning the flames of the risk-on narrative. 

“We’ve come this far without needing a recession to dampen inflation, a very unusual circumstance, so it is entirely possible that the Fed can achieve its 2% target without an economic downturn,” Colas said.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the On the Margin newsletter.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Salt Lake City, UT

MON - TUES, OCT. 7 - 8, 2024

Blockworks and Bankless in collaboration with buidlbox are excited to announce the second installment of the Permissionless Hackathon – taking place October 7-8 in Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ve partnered with buidlbox to bring together the brightest minds in crypto for […]

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Pack your bags, anon — we’re heading west! Join us in the beautiful Salt Lake City for the third installment of Permissionless. Come for the alpha, stay for the fresh air. Permissionless III promises unforgettable panels, killer networking opportunities, and mountains […]

recent research

Polygon Call Template (2).png

Research

A significant portion of the call was dedicated to discussing the proposed ZK-PoS Phase 1, which aims to connect Polygon PoS to the AggLayer using a ZK proof of consensus, in addition to a pessimistic proof. This upgrade is intended to generalize how chains settle while protecting chain health and asset integrity. The implementation will involve deploying new contracts for the LxLy unified bridge for token mapping and migrating existing tokens from the PoS portal to the new deployment.

article-image

The Merge was meant to turn ETH into ultra-sound money, but it’s turning out more ultra-elastic these days

article-image

Plus, Ethereum is in the midst of its longest inflationary period so far — and it’s all blobs’ fault

article-image

It may be counterintuitive that a high amount of focus on a technology would lead to security risks — but it’s true

article-image

Structured products are common in traditional finance, but onchain options are scant

article-image

Plus, an update on the ether ETF front and an overview of this week’s economic calendar

article-image

Plus, Solana fell roughly 12% on the week, and for some memecoins the drawdown was even more aggressive