Bitcoin Gains but Remains Below $41,000 as Bond Yields Rise, Ether Stumbles
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Bitcoin
edged higher Friday but remained below $41,000 as an increase in bond yields weighed on the world’s largest cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin has risen 0.9% over the past 24 hours to $40,477, and has declined 13.3% this year. Smaller peer
ether
has gained 0.3% over the past 24 hours to $3,033. The token underpinning the Ethereum blockchain had topped $3,500 early last week.
Bitcoin remains well off its all-time high of $68,990 reached early last November.
Bitcoin has been trading in tandem with risk-sensitive assets, such as tech stocks, amid the Federal Reserve’s shift to tighter monetary policy. The central bank is expected to boost interest rates many times this year and next in an effort to cool inflation.
The related increase in bond yields has dented tech stocks — higher bond yields make future profits less valuable — and digital assets.
The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 2.83% on Thursday, a new pandemic-era closing high. (The bond market, like the stock market, is closed Friday). The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 2.1% on Thursday.
Analysts at Fundstrat said that “recent market distress” has caused an increase in cryptocurrencies’ correlation to tech stocks. But despite what the analysts called a “tumultuous week,” they remain constructive on crypto asset prices in the immediate term.
Oanda senior market analyst Craig Erlam said it appears that bitcoin has “lost all breakout momentum in recent weeks.”
“It continues to trade more broadly in its 2022 recovery channel and recent price action suggests it could be heading for another move towards the lows. That’s around 10% from the current price and a break below here could be a very bearish development,” Erlam added.
Write to Joe Woelfel at joseph.woelfel@barrons.com