The price of bitcoin rose on Thursday, tracking broader growth in risk markets amid an interest rate cut in September, although speculation about increasing the distribution of Mt Gox tokens limited overall gains. Writes UNN with reference to Investing.
Risk appetite decreased due to data showing a significant downward revision of US labor figures, which increased concerns about a possible recession.
Bitcoin is up 2.4% to $60,751.8. For most of this week, the token has been trading in a narrow range and trying to stay above $60,000.
This week, wallets linked to the defunct Mt Gox crypto exchange were seen to have mobilized around $700 million in tokens on Wednesday, after moving around $2 billion earlier in the week.
In early July, Mt. Gox began returning tokens to customers after a hack in 2014, raising concerns about the increased supply of bitcoin and pressure on the market. It is not known how many bitcoins Mt. Gox still has, but Coindesk estimates that it could be as many as 46,000 tokens, or $28 billion at the spot price.
After the publication of the Fed's July meeting minutes, expectations for a September rate cut increased as policymakers supported this possibility. According to CME Fedwatch, traders were divided in their forecasts for a 25 or 50 basis point cut in September.
These expectations were reinforced by the sharp revision of wage data for the year to March 2024, which showed labor market weakness that had not been previously taken into account. This data has raised new fears of a recession in the US this year, which is weighing on risk assets, even as rates may be cut. However, lower rates create a favorable environment for speculative assets such as cryptocurrencies.
Cryptocurrency prices also rose today, following bitcoin's rise and improving overall market conditions, although gains remain limited. The Ether token is up 1.1% to $2,622.35, while SOL is down 0.5%. MATIC is up over 13%, while ADA and XRP are up 2.8% and 0.3%, respectively. Among the meme tokens, DOGE added 1.2%.
Recall
Yesterday , the price of bitcoin fell as Mt Gox appeared to have mobilized tokens worth about $2 billion, raising concerns about new distributions from the defunct crypto exchange.