Bitcoin Tests $64K

CoinDesk 20 Index: 2,000.30 +3.89%

Bitcoin (BTC): $63,503.69 +1.57%

Ether (ETH): $2,544.28 +4.77%

S&P 500: 5,713.64 +1.7%

Gold: $2,611.84 +0.95%

Nikkei 225: 37,723.91 +1.53%

Bitcoin rose above $64,000 in the Asian morning hours as the Bank of Japan (BoJ) kept rates unchanged. It later settled around $63,500, up 1.9% in the past 24 hours. The BOJ’s move prevented a repeat of the July rate hike that sent crypto markets into a tailspin. Investors once again observed that macroeconomic data was a source of optimism for risk assets like BTC. QCP Capital investors wrote on the developments: “The US 2Y/10Y Treasury spread, an indicator of recession, has inverted since July 2022, but has recently steepened to +8 basis points. This indicates market optimism and a shift towards risk assets.”

Steno Research said in a report published yesterday that the recent underperformance of ether (ETH) may be over and the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency is ready to shine again compared to both fiat and bitcoin (BTC). The native token of the Ethereum blockchain has increased by about 8% since the beginning of the year, while bitcoin has gained 43% and the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) has gained about 11%. Steno’s report stated that ETH has been quite bullish during the last altcoin season, more than doubling its value compared to bitcoin in less than two months. The report emphasized that this change was triggered by an increase in on-chain activity, including decentralized finance (DeFi), stablecoin issuance, and the explosion of NFTs, all of which are primarily occurring on the Ethereum blockchain.

Hundreds of bitcoins mined in the early stages of the network were moved for the first time in a long time. The Satoshi era refers to the period when the anonymous creator of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, was active on online forums from late 2009 to 2011. More than 250 BTC worth around $16 million at current prices were moved to new wallets in European morning hours in transactions of 50 BTC each. It is not clear whether all these wallets belong to the same person or organization. There were no transfers from the new wallets to any crypto exchanges. Blockchain data shows that these bitcoins were received as a block reward in 2009, a few months after the network launched.

The chart shows the correlation between the price of BTC and the Bitcoin hash rate. A deviation of the 30-day correlation of -50% indicates that the two could converge, either with the price rising or the hash rate falling. Source: Glassnode