First Mover Asia: Bitcoin Is Upbeat Above $20K as Investors Grow Optimistic That Steep Rate Hikes Will Soon End; Kim Kardashian and the SEC's Publicity Grab

In This Article:

Good morning. Here’s what’s happening:

Prices: Bitcoin, ether and other cryptos spend another day in the green.

Insights: The SEC's settlement with mega-influencer Kim Kardashian is a warning to the crypto industry, as CoinDesk columnist Daniel Kuhn noted in Tuesday's edition of the Node. (First Mover Asia writers Sam Reynolds and Shaurya Malwa are away.)

Prices

Bitcoin (BTC): $20,209 +3.1%

Ether (ETH): $1,356 +2.5%

CoinDesk Market Index (CMI): 986 +2.4%

S&P 500 daily close: 3,790.93 +3.1%

Gold: $1,732 per troy ounce +2.3%

Ten-year Treasury yield daily close: 3.62% −3e+1


Bitcoin, ether and gold prices are taken at approximately 4pm New York time. Bitcoin is the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (XBX); Ether is the CoinDesk Ether Price Index (ETX); Gold is the COMEX spot price. Information about CoinDesk Indices can be found at coindesk.com/indices.

Bitcoin Spends the Day Back Over $20K

By James Rubin

Say hello to $20,000 again.

Bitcoin rose markedly for a second consecutive day and was recently trading at about $20,200, a more than 3% gain over the past 24 hours and its highest level in a week. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has crossed the psychologically important threshold several times over the past month but failed to stick amid investor concerns about inflation and the prospect of a harsh recession.

On Tuesday, markets responded positively to a surprising decline in job openings in the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), which offered hope that the economy was slowing enough for the U.S. central bank to reverse course on steep interest rate hikes in the not-too-distant future.

Ether was recently changing hands above $1,350, up more than 5% from the previous day, same time. Other major altcoins spent much of the day firmly in the green with DOGE rising more than 10% after Elon Musk, a champion of the popular meme coin, indicated he would be willing to follow through on his original proposal to purchase social media platform Twitter. SHIB, a similarly dog-themed meme coin and LINK, climbed over 4% and 5%, respectively.

The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI), a broad-based market index that measures performance across a basket of cryptocurrencies, recently increased by 2.4%.

Equity markets continued their so-far, buoyant week with the tech-focused Nasdaq and S&P 500, which has a strong technology component, jumping 3.3% and 3.1%, respectively, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rising 2.8%. Investors responded favorably to an unexpectedly small interest rate hike by Australia's central bank and the JOLTS reading suggesting that the hot jobs market was finally losing steam. Torrid job figures have concerned U.S. central bankers looking for signs of an economic downtrend.