Morning Crypto Briefing: BTC Pushes Above $21K, ETH Eyes $1.2K As Risk Appetite Ramps Up

Joel Frank
8 min read

Key Points

  • Crypto is set to end the week on the front foot with altcoins outperforming as risk appetite ramps up.

  • Falling bond yields and commodity prices amid growing calls for a US recession has been cited as risk asset supportive.

  • Bitcoin was lasting trading just above $21,000 and Ethereum near $1,200.

State of the Market

Broad macro risk appetite looks set to finish the week in robust fashion, with US equity index futures eyeing a test of fresh two-week highs. The E-mini S&P 500 future is currently up about 0.7% in pre-market trade in the mid-3,800s, taking its gains since earlier weekly lows in the mid-3,600s to around 5.0%, with this recovery in sentiment helping to prop up cryptocurrency prices.

Bitcoin was last consolidating just to the north of the $21,000 level, towards the top of this week’s upper-$19,000 to upper $21,000 range and more than 20% above weekend lows near $17,500. Ethereum, meanwhile, was last at weekly highs just below the $1,200 level and about 35% higher versus last weekend’s sub-$900 per token lows.

The outperformance of stocks and crypto this week has been surprising in the context of an increasingly loud chorus of economists, major financial institutions and even Fed Chair Jerome Powell himself warning about the rising risk of a recession in the US. But analysts said that this resilience in risk assets like stocks and crypto could be down to a steep drop in US government bond yields and major commodity prices, which itself directly reflects rising recession risks. This drop in commodities and bond yields suggests a tamer inflation outlook and less hawkish central banks.

In terms of the major altcoins, Polygon’s MATIC token is up more than 18% in the last 24 hours according to CoinMarketCap data, with MATIC/USD trading near $0.60 and higher by nearly 50% on the week. Analysts have cited recent upside as down to a new product released by Polygon’s development team that allows for more private voting in Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAOs). The new product, called Polygon ID, is a system that verifies user identification whilst allowing individuals to maintain their anonymity when voting on governance proposals. The product went live on Polygon DAO earlier in the week.

The next best performer is Ripple’s XRP, which is higher by over 13% over the last 24 hours and closing in on the $0.40 per token level, while the likes of Avalanche, Shiba Inu and Solana are all higher in the region of 7-10% over the same time period. Solana doesn’t seem to have taken much impetus from the news that the blockchain’s key stakeholder Solana Labs is planning to release its own Web3 integrated mobile phone called “Saga”. Generally, the altcoins are outperforming on Friday, indicate of improving crypto risk appetite.

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