Unemployment and productivity data arrived stronger thanย predicted but investors seemed focused narrowly on the ongoing negotiations that will determine if the Unitedย States Government must default on its debts.
The Unitedย States announced unexpectedly strong unemployment and GDP data, but cryptocurrencyย investors had debt ceiling negotiations on their minds, Thursday.
They recently kept Bitcoinย (BTC) lingering under $26,500, up about 0.3 percent but below its most up-to-date nearly two-week-long range betwixt this threshold and $27,500. The largest digitalย currency by marketย cap has lost some of its 2023 profits in recent weeks as investors wrestle with aย combination of macroeconomic uncertainties, most prominently of late the U.S.โs ongoing debt limit stalemate that will determine whether the Unitedย States Government can pay its bills. On Thursday, Republican House lawmakers informed progress in discussions with the White house, but whether the sides can reach agreement in time to avert a Government default remains uncertain.
โDebt ceiling concerns are definitely weighing on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency generally,โ Riyad Carey, research analyst at digital assets data provider Kaiko, wrote via Twitter to CoinDesk. โWeโve been fairly range-bound in theย recent weeks as there have not been numerous crypto-specific catalysts.
Carey does not expect any dramatic price shift in bitcoinโs price in the near future, if not beyond with theย following major catalyst, the Bitcoin halving, almost a year away. โ Ofย course, regulatory developments could shake this up,โ he wrote.
Ether was recently changing hands at just over $1,812 up approximately 0.3 percent from Wednesday, same time. Most other major cryptocurrencies assumed faint shades of green with MATIC, the cryptoย token of layer 2 platform Polygon, recently growing 2%. The CoinDesk Market Index, a measure of cryptocurrency markets performance, was up 0.46%.
Tech stocks seemed to levitate after chipmaker Nvidia stated sales would boost asย aย resultย of theย expansion of artificial intelligence protocols. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500, which has a hefty technology component climbed 1.7 percent and 0.9%, respectively. Safe haven investment gold continued itsrecent decline less than a 30ย days after reaching a near record high, sliding greaterย than a percentage point to trade at $1,959.
Onย theย otherย hand, assets of all stripes seemed largely unmoved by Thursdayโs jobs data, which showed 229,000 Americans filing unemployment advantages pastย week, well below the anticipated 245,000, and the Unitedย States economy expanding 1.3%, the third consecutive quarter of growth. Earlier this year and throughout 2022, such news canย potentially have sent digital assets cascading, but CoinDesk analyst on Thursday highlighted a shift in the good-economic-news-leads-to-lower-crypto- prices narrative.
Still, the debt limit negotiations remained at the center of numerous market observersโ radars. โEverything hinges on the debt ceiling atย thisย time, and until a resolution of some sort is found, I doย not expect to see Bitcoinย (BTC) outperform as it has since the start of the year,โ Brent Xu, CEO and co- founder of Umee, a Webย 3.0 bond-market platform, wrote to CoinDesk. โIf the crisis gets prolonged, it seems like Bitcoin and other digital assets canย potentially linger or even push downward for a good while.โ
Xu wrote that Bitcoinย (BTC) and other digital assets remainย in aย โ cryptocurrency Spring phase, so theย present sideways volatility, punctuated by pullbacks after short runs, is to be expected,ย that this tendency will continue until next year when the halving kicks in. Andย once that happens, weโre likely off to the races.
He wentย onย toย say: โFor now, with so much macro and political uncertainty, I think investors and traders are being cautious with their capital.โ
James Rubin.
