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below $68,000 as March jobs data beat Investing.com estimates
the price fell on Friday even as the world’s largest cryptocurrency recouped some of its recent losses on Thursday, with its recovery largely stalled by lingering uncertainty over U.S. interest rates.
Bitcoin fell 0.69% over the past 24 hours to $67,587.1 as of 1:54 pm ET (18:54 GMT). The token had fallen as low as $64,000 earlier in the week as broader risk appetite tightened.
The earthquake in Taiwan, worsening geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and the threat of higher US interest rates for an extended period have kept traders largely biased towards the dollar and other safe haven assets.
The dollar rose on Friday, while gold prices remained within sight of record highs reached earlier in the week.
A series of hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials also weighed on risk appetite, as several central bank members warned that sticky inflation will prevent the Fed from cutting interest rates sooner.
Bitcoin price is set at a weekly loss as non-farm payrolls beat expectations
The world’s largest cryptocurrency has traded down about 3% over the past five days, setting itself up for a weekly loss.
Bitcoin has been floundering in a tight trading range after hitting record highs of more than $73,000 in March. This decline coincided with weakness in the US stock market and other major risk-oriented assets, marking a weak start to the second quarter.
Capital flows into recently approved Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have also seen a slowdown in recent weeks, as has trading activity in the space.
While ETF approval was a key driver of Bitcoin’s gains earlier this year, this trend now appears to have lost momentum.
But the main focus was on nonfarm payrolls data, which came in above economists’ expectations.
The US employment sector showed strength once again as the government announced the addition of 303,000 jobs last month, exceeding projections of 200,000 and an adjustment of February figures from 275,000 to 270,000.
Additionally, the March unemployment rate fell to 3.8%, better than the expected 3.9% and down from February’s rate of 3.9%.
Non-farm payrolls data is closely watched by markets as it can significantly influence the outlook for US interest rates. Higher rates for a longer period bode poorly for Bitcoin, which usually thrives in low-rate, high-liquidity markets.
Cryptocurrency Prices Today: ETH Lags, XRP Rebounds From One-Month Low
Among other cryptocurrencies, prices fell 2.6%, falling behind peers as the Securities and Exchange Commission prepared its decision on spot ETFs for the world’s No. 2 cryptocurrency.
The SEC has also been seen investigating whether Ethereum can be classified as a security.
Among other units, XRP fell 0.7% as the outlook for the token remained bleak with the SEC’s case against it now expected to proceed into April.
Crypto derivatives trading volume hit record highs in March, but overall market share declined
In March, crypto derivatives trading hit an all-time high with volume of $6.18 trillion on centralized exchanges, as reported by CCData, a digital asset data provider. This volume was triple the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies.
Despite this growth, derivatives market share fell for the sixth consecutive month, falling to 67.8%, the lowest level since December 2022.
This shift occurred as traders increasingly engaged in the spot market, immediately trading cryptocurrencies, leading to a 108% increase in spot trading volume to $2.94 trillion, the highest since May 2021. Together, the Spot and derivatives trading reached a record $9.12 trillion.