Investing.com-- Bitcoin price climbed marginally on Friday, taking some relief from a sharp drop in the dollar, although the outlook for the cryptocurrency remained bleak in the face of high for longer U.S. interest rates.
Traders also remained largely averse towards cryptocurrencies ahead of key nonfarm payrolls data on Friday, which is likely to factor into the outlook for interest rates.
Bitcoin rose nearly 1% in the past 24 hours to $59,070.4 by 08:28 ET (12:28 GMT). The world’s largest cryptocurrency remained close to bear market territory after tumbling over 20% from a record high hit in March.
Dollar drop offers some relief to Bitcoin, but weekly losses on tap
A sharp overnight drop in the dollar gave Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies some breathing room, although they were still headed for losses this week.
Bitcoin was trading down 6.2% for this week, with traders remaining averse towards crypto in the face of high-for-longer U.S. interest rates.
This was also seen with Bitcoin investment products, specifically spot exchange-traded funds, clocking three straight weeks of declines. While approval of the ETFs had driven Bitcoin prices to record highs in March, enthusiasm over the approval now appeared to be running dry.
This also kept Bitcoin trading between $60,000 to $70,000 for over a month, although it broke below that trading range this week.
Crypto price today: Altcoins slip ahead of nonfarm payrolls
Most altcoins returned to red territory on Friday, after tracking Bitcoin’s gains for a brief period.
The limited optimism comes amid anticipation of key U.S. nonfarm payrolls data, which is likely to factor into the outlook for interest rates.
World no.2 token Ethereum fell 0.4% to $2,974.60 while Solana and XRP slipped by 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively.
All three altcoins were trading in a flat-to-low range for the week. The prospect of high U.S. interest rates bodes poorly for crypto markets, given that their speculative nature sees them thrive in a low-rate, high-liquidity environment.
Nonfarm payrolls data due later on Friday is expected to show persistent strength in the U.S. labor market- a scenario that gives the Fed more headroom to keep rates high for longer.
The central bank had warned earlier this week that it had no immediate plans to reduce rates, especially amid recent signs of sticky U.S. inflation.
Hong Kong crypto ETFs to hit $1bn in AUM by year end, crypto executive says
Sui Chung, CEO of CF Benchmarks, a division of the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, has forecasted that crypto ETFs in Hong Kong will amass $1 billion in assets under management (AUM) by the end of 2024, Bloomberg reported on Friday.
Despite a modest start in trading volume, Chung remains optimistic about the growth prospects of these newly launched ETFs.
CF Benchmarks, headquartered in London, specializes in providing reference data for crypto ETFs, predominantly for bitcoin-based products such as BlackRock (NYSE:BLK)'s IBIT. The firm currently oversees approximately $24 billion in AUM, representing about half of the crypto benchmarking market.
Hong Kong's bitcoin and ether ETFs staged a debut earlier in the week but failed to attract strong attention, significantly underperforming initial expectations.
The combined trading volume for the six crypto ETFs totaled only $11 million on their first day.
Of this, bitcoin ETFs accounted for $8.5 million, while ether ETFs registered $2.5 million. This fell well short of the over $100 million in trading volume that issuers had anticipated, as reported by local media.