Jobless claims dipped, while productivity rose—both unexpectedly, said Nick Rose Ntertsas, CEO and co-founder of NFT platform Ethernity. Digital assets responded with a slight increase from the day before, with Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, trading at $30,374, a 1% gain from Wednesday. BTC has been on a roller coaster ride the past couple of days, rising above $31,000 briefly on Tuesday after news of Fidelity Investments and BlackRock applying for spot bitcoin ETFs, but sinking below $30,000 on Wednesday.
Ether, the second largest crypto in market value, was recently changing hands at $1,848, also up 1% from Wednesday. Other major cryptos were trading in lightly green-tinted territory, although SOL, the token of the Solano smart contracts blockchain, recently spiked more than 10%.
Yes, interest rates in the United States might get hiked again, a recession could be nigh both in America and across Europe, said Ntertsas. But we’re also seeing central bank interventions across a number of major economies that, in effect, have served as a driver of liquidity. Risk assets in particular respond well to these liquidity plays, and Bitcoin and digital assets are no different.
Stephane Ouellette, CEO of Toronto-based crypto platform, noted that the BlackRock and other ETF applications had buoyed markets. In our view, the largest incremental benefit for the industry from a US-based spot ETF is the continued entry of some of the world’s most respected tradfi firms into the space, in spite of the bear market and horrendous 18-months of headlines, he said.
The CoinDesk Market Index, a measure of cryptos’ performance, was trading up 1.7%. Equity markets were mixed with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and S&P 500 rising 0.6% and 0.2%, respectively on the upbeat U.S. economic data.
At the Banco de Espana Fourth Conference on Financial Stability, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell noted central bank uncertainty about the appropriate inflationary medicine in the months ahead, although he has suggested in recent weeks that the Fed would raise rates in upcoming months.
Nonetheless, inflation pressures continue to run high, and the process of getting inflation back down to 2 percent has a long way to go, Powell said.