First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Tests $64K as BoJ Pauses Rate Hikes

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CoinDesk 20 Index: 2,000.30 +3.89%

Bitcoin (BTC): $63,503.69 +1.57%

Ether (ETH): $2,544.28 +4.77%

S&P 500: 5,713.64 +1.7%

Gold: $2,611.84 +0.95%

Nikkei 225: 37,723.91 +1.53%

Bitcoin rose above $64,000 during the Asian morning as the Bank of Japan kept rates unchanged in a positive signal for risk assets. It subsequently pared some of its gains to settle around $63,500, 1.9% higher in the last 24 hours. The BoJ's move avoided a repeat of its rate hike in July, which caused a slide in crypto markets. Traders observed that macroeconomic data is a source of optimism for riskier assets like BTC. “The US 2Y/10Y treasury spread, an indicator of recession, has been inverted since July 2022 but has recently steepened to +8bps,” QCP Capital traders said in a market broadcast Friday. “This reflects market optimism and a shift towards risk-on assets.”

Ether may be about to shine after underperforming against the wider crypto market this year, according to a new report by Steno Research. ETH has gained around 8% this year, compared with BTC's 40%. However, ether's performance during the last bull market could provide some clues as to what to expect now. ETH surged thanks to greater onchain activity from DeFi, stablecoin issuance and NFTs. The Federal Reserve interest-rate cut earlier this week will result in increased onchain activity, which will strongly benefit Ethereum, Steno said. “Ethereum's active addresses remain strong, particularly when factoring in the growing adoption of rollups,” analyst Mads Eberhardt wrote, adding that the network's transactional revenue looks to have bottomed in August.

More than 250 “Satoshi era” BTC moved on Friday, in a rare instance of bitcoin mined in the cryptocurrency's early days becoming active. The Satoshi era refers to the period between 2009 and 2011, when bitcoin's pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto was active in the community before disappearing. The bitcoin were transferred in transactions of 50 BTC to new wallets during the European morning, on-chain tracker Whale Alerts flagged on X. Several “Satoshi era” bitcoin have been active in the past few years. In July 2023, a wallet dormant for 11 years transferred $30 million worth of the asset to other wallets, and in August, another wallet transferred 1,005 BTC to a new address.

– James Van Straten