Market Wrap: Cryptos Rise in an Eventful Week; Bitcoin Hovers Over $21K, Ether Soars

Crypto investors liked the tone of the latest jobs report and other economic indicators this week, sending bitcoin to a seven-week high and other cryptos well into the green.

The largest cryptocurrency by market value was recently still around $21,000, up about 4% for the last 24 hours and over the upper end of the narrow range it has occupied for weeks. The oldest cryptocurrency has been hovering nearer to $20,000 for much of the past 10 days.

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“Today’s employment report triggered a wave of volatility that ended up being positive for risky assets, which has helped bitcoin rally above the $21,000 level,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst for foreign exchange market maker Oanda, wrote in an email.

Ether was recently changing hands above $1,600, a more than 6% gain and the first time since mid-September that the second-largest cryptocurrency had topped that threshold. Other altcoins enjoyed an upbeat Friday, with MATIC recently rising more than 21% and CRO up over 11%.

As CoinDesk’s Omkar Godbole reported, MATIC’s rise may stem from Web2 giant Meta’s decision to launch a toolkit allowing users of social media platform Instagram to mint and sell Polygon-powered non-fungible tokens (NFT), or digital collectibles. Polygon is the first partner that Meta has chosen for the new feature.

The CoinDesk Market Index, a broad-based index designed to measure the market capitalization weighted performance of the digital asset market, soared almost 5%.

The crypto market’s spike followed the unexpectedly robust jobs report showing that U.S. payrolls added 261,000 jobs in October, beating economist forecasts for 200,000. The unemployment rate rose to 3.7% versus expectations for 3.6%.

The uptick in unemployment and a sizable decline in the household survey of 325,000 jobs encouraged at least one economist, Dartmouth’s Danny Blanchflower, that the hot jobs market was beginning to reverse, a good sign in the ongoing struggle to tame inflation: “We are now in a position … to expect the Fed to go into full reverse gear as the labor market is set to crash,” Blanchflower tweeted. “Rate cuts are coming,” he added.

Equity markets rose more moderately, with the Nasdaq, S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average all gaining more than a percentage point. Safe haven gold made a rare rare comeback, increasing 3%.

Oanda’s Moya noted optimistically, “A downshift to a slower pace of tightening still seems in the cards for the Fed and that should provide some short-term support for cryptos.”

By Glenn Williams Jr

Bitcoin has been trading in a narrow range since June, and finding signs of significant movement – up or down – has been challenging. A recently occurring moving average crossover is worth monitoring, however.

On Oct. 28, BTC’s 10-period moving average crossed above its 50-period moving average. BTC’s price dating back to Jan. 1, 2015, shows this trend occurring 27 times over 2,862 trading days.

Following each occurrence, BTC’s price increased by 3% on average for every seven days. BTC prices were about 10% higher on average for 30-day periods following the same signal.

A comparison to all trading data over that period suggests that investors who have gone long BTC following that signal have slightly outperformed a buy-and-hold strategy.

Read the full technical take by CoinDesk analyst Glenn Williams Jr.

Sector classifications are provided via the Digital Asset Classification Standard (DACS), developed by CoinDesk Indices to provide a reliable, comprehensive and standardized classification system for digital assets. The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI) is a broad-based index designed to measure the market capitalization weighted performance of the digital asset market subject to minimum trading and exchange eligibility requirements.