Bitcoin, Ether rise amid renewed recession fears after weaker-than-expected US GDP
Bitcoin and Ether rose in Asian trading hours on Friday, while the 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization closed mixed. The SOL token saw the biggest gain. Asian stock markets rallied after China’s central bank increased short-term cash injections for the 11th day. European stock markets fell after Germany’s first-quarter GDP growth showed signs of stagnation. Most US stock futures strengthened, despite weaker-than-expected GDP data from the world’s largest economy.
Bitcoin rose 1.28% to US$29,367 in the 24 hours to 16:30 in Hong Kong. The world’s largest cryptocurrency gained 4.43% on the week after rallying from $27,070 on Monday.
“There were problems in the traditional financial system that sort of propped up the value proposition of crypto,” said Justin d’Anethan, director of institutional sales at Amber Group. But he added that “prices would have to go much higher for another US$30,000 [become] a support line.”
Ether rose 1.33% on the day to trade at $1,914, but fell 0.48% on the week.
“When the Shapella upgrade happened, not many big Ethereum whales were selling. They wanted to keep the price up so that the narrative of staking would be bullish and people would feel optimistic about Ethereum,” d’Anethan said, adding that Ether’s short-term price trajectory is not bearish.
Solana’s SOL token was the biggest gainer of the day in the top 10 cryptos, rising 3.67% to $22.52, followed by the XRP token, up 2.63% to $0.47.
Global cryptocurrency market capitalization rose 1.37% to $1.21 trillion in the 24 hours to 4:30 p.m. in Hong Kong, while total crypto market trading volume fell 36.46% to $45.92 billion.
The Discard 500 NFT index was down 0.11% to 3,721.74 points during the day and fell 5.48% for the week. The index is a proxy measure of the performance of the global NFT market and includes 500 eligible smart contracts. It is managed by CryptoSlam, a sister company of Forkast.News under the Forkast Labs umbrella.
“The Forkast 500 is a representation of the market as a whole, but it also reflects traders and what they are doing or not doing, and there is very low volume in the NFT markets right now,” Yehudah Petscher, NFT strategist at Forkast Labs, said in an interview. Laundering remains a problem, he said.
“Still, there are good things happening in the NFT space, with communities building and growing,” Petscher said. “Also, the art is world class and there is an important thing happening in the NFT space where digital artists can now make a living selling their NFTs. Sotheby’s and Christie’s are now selling NFT art regularly,” he added .
Asian stocks rose for a second day in a row, lifted by Thursday’s upbeat session on Wall Street, easing concerns over geopolitical pressures after Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday made his first phone call to Ukrainian President Zelensky since the Russian invasion, discussing cooperation on peace.
Market sentiment was also boosted by the People’s Bank of China reportedly stepping up short-term cash injections into the banking system for the 11th day in a row, the longest streak this year, to ease investor concerns over a potential liquidity squeeze.
European stocks weakened, following signs of stagnation from Europe’s biggest economy, after Germany’s gross domestic product was flat in the first quarter of 2023, missing preliminary market expectations for a 0.2% expansion.
Most US stock futures rose on Friday, except for the S&P 500 Futures which fell 0.47%. Investors’ worries about a recession in the world’s largest economy grew after US GDP rose 1.1%, below estimates of 2%. Inflation in the first quarter was 4.2%, above estimates of 3.7%. Business inventories also fell, usually an indicator of an economic downturn.
