On Monday, crypto prices saw a rise, with the flagship token Bitcoin (BTC) rising 0.3 percent to $17,087, while Ether (ETH) climbed 0.5 percent to $1,266. However, traditional markets fell to coincide with this rise in crypto prices yesterday.
In addition, shares of some leading digital and technology companies also fell, along with U.S. stock indexes. These companies include Block, MicroStrategy, Coinbase and Silvergate Capital. In addition, the U.S. dollar index traded at its lowest level since August on Monday, after being down in recent days.
BTC is changing hands at $17,000 at press time and is still less than a third of its all-time high in November 2021.
Price trend analysis
Although BTC peaked above $17K after trading at that level since Sunday, the leading crypto began to show weakness later in the day on Monday. In addition to Bitcoin and Ether, Binance’s native BNB coin rose 0.5%, while Ripple’s native XRP token climbed 0.2%. Additionally, Litecoin (LTC) had the biggest gains of the period, rising 7% between Sunday and Monday.
The U.S. dollar index was trading at a four-month low of 104.83, further validating an established trend with bitcoin. Historically, the dollar price of bitcoin tends to climb higher when the dollar weakens. The U.S. dollar has already erased more than 50 percent of the gains made this year on bets that the Fed would slow interest rate hikes. According to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, the probability of a 50 basis point hike in the second week of December is now 77%. The FedWatch analysis tool based its conclusions on pricing data for federal funds futures.
Another reason for the sharp decline in U.S. dollar gains is the growing optimism surrounding China’s reopening plans. The Chinese cities of Shanghai and Hangzhou recently eased some Covid-related restrictions, which is widely seen as an important step toward full reopening. Commenting on this development, Christopher Wong, currency strategist at Overseas Chinese Banking Corp in Singapore, said:
“Anticipation of China’s reopening and the Fed’s policy calibration are key themes that should keep commodity-linked currencies supported. Last Friday’s strong nonfarm payrolls report only saw a reflexive rebound in the US dollar.”
Digital, technology and crypto-currency players slide as digital currency prices rise.
In other price-related news, the S&P 500 plunged 0.8 percent, while the Nasdaq 100 fell 0.7 percent. Meanwhile, shares of leading U.S. crypto-currency exchange Coinbase were down 0.9% at $47, according to Nasdaq data. Meanwhile, mobile payment facilitator Block also saw its shares plunge 4.7 percent to $64.92, while MicroStrategy was down more than 5 percent to $195. Earlier this week, shares of the business intelligence, mobile software and cloud-based services provider were trading above $200.
Among other declines during the period, shares of Silvergate slid 5.2 percent, while Grayscale’s GBTC fund was trading at a 42.3 percent discount. In addition, the asset manager also saw the discount on its ETHE product plummet to a new record low of 45.7%.