Bitcoin prices kicked off the year with a big rally but have since stagnated.
Dreamstime
Bitcoin
and other cryptocurrencies were moving higher Wednesday, bucking the trend of the stock market, but digital assets remain under pressure from regulatory developments that look unkind to crypto.
The price of Bitcoin has risen 1.5% over the past 24 hours to $22,150, still below the trading range around $23,000 that had previously dominated for much of the past few weeks before a selloff last Thursday. Scrutiny on crypto companies from the Securities and Exchange Commission and other U.S. regulators has picked up over the past week, hitting sentiment for digital assets.
“We continue to see resilience in cryptos which is very encouraging despite regulatory headlines not being particularly good,” said Craig Erlam, an analyst at broker Oanda. “Bitcoin enjoyed a decent rebound on Tuesday despite broader market sentiment being more challenging on the back of the U.S. inflation report.”
Indeed, Bitcoin remained resilient despite a falling stock market over the past day. The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
and
S&P 500
both slipped after the latest consumer-price index inflation reading, which disrupted expectations that the Federal Reserve will soon shift to less aggressive monetary policy.
The Fed raised interest rates dramatically over the past year in a bid to tame inflation, providing major headwinds for stocks and cryptos—both risk-sensitive assets—and helping the correlation strengthen between the two asset classes.
The latest price action may suggest that Bitcoin’s link to stocks is weakening. But that isn’t necessarily a good thing, especially as investor sentiment over cryptos continues to look depressed with signs of a slowdown after the 40% rally that kicked off 2023.
“Bitcoin is showing signs of re-entering a slumber. Bitcoin’s volumes apart from Binance remain shallow, and we note reduced institutional participation in the market, as CME’s open interest has fallen a further 11% this week,” a team led by Bendik Schei at crypto research firm Arcane wrote in a note. CME open interest refers to the number of Bitcoin futures contracts traded on the CME, which is a regulated U.S. exchange that attracts mostly institutional investors.
Beyond Bitcoin,
Ether
—the second-largest crypto—was up 2.5% to $1,550. Smaller cryptos or altcoins were also rising, with
Cardano
gaining 6% and
Polygon
jumping 5%. Memecoins also outperformed, with
Dogecoin
surging 5% and
Shiba Inu
4% higher, helped along after tweets from Elon Musk teased the group of jokey tokens.
Write to Jack Denton at jack.denton@barrons.com
Credit: marketwatch.com