Fiona Cincotta News

Bitcoin is down about 1.8% for the week as of 2:15 p.m. in New York on Friday. If the trend continues, it will be the first negative week for Bitcoin since its current rally began in late January. Retail investors enthusiastic about the recent approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds and the next halving event — which will cut the supply of newly minted Bitcoin in half — have driven up the price of the asset by 25% in recent weeks.

Europe's main index plunged 2% to a near three-month low on Tuesday, as concerns over the fate of U.S.-China relations cast a shadow over stocks with significant exposure to the world's No. 2 economy, while some downbeat earnings also weighed. The STOXX 600 also notched its steepest one-day decline since early August after Monday's 1% jump.

By Amanda Cooper

By Elizabeth Howcroft

Bitcoin’s chances of hitting $40,000 are top of mind for crypto speculators as they head into the final stretch of a year during which the largest digital asset more than doubled in price. The token has rebounded about 130% over the past 11 months from 2022’s crypto rout, outstripping investments like stocks or gold. Hopes for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts next year, and expectations that the US will allow its first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, together created a potent elixir. The rally weathered a US crackdown that put Sam Bankman-Fried behind bars for fraud at FTX and handed top crypto exchange Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao rap sheets and big fines. For optimists, the drive to curb questionable practices and the recent flurry of ETF applications point to a maturing industry and the potential for wider crypto adoption. “In order to get to $40,000, we just need that approval for the spot Bitcoin ETF,” said Fiona Cincotta, senior financial markets analyst at City Index Ltd. The token recently lost some steam, in part as big swings in equities and currencies attracted the attention of investors, she said.

By Elizabeth Howcroft

By Amanda Cooper

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) ended down for the second consecutive month yesterday, despite bullish news that a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) could be coming soon.

By Elizabeth Howcroft

By Amanda Cooper

Bitcoin has been moving less in tandem with tech stocks as sentiment around equities and cryptocurrencies diverges. The world’s largest cryptocurrency has been stuck below the $27,000 level this week, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 has climbed 3.5%. The 40-day correlation coefficient for Bitcoin and the tech gauge slid to 0.19 on Friday, the lowest since April 25. A reading of 1 implies assets are moving in lockstep and minus 1 signifies the opposite. Before April, the lowest reading was in November 2021. Bitcoin and equities — particularly growth stocks — had been tied at the hip for a while as investor appetite for both boomed in an era of low interest rates. That has since changed since the start of the year, as uncertainty around the Federal Reserve’s path of rate hikes and the bank collapses in March prompted investors in each market to react differently.

Bitcoin bounced off the lows of the day after falling as much as 6% to $39,774 in New York trading.

Bitcoin briefly fell below $40,000 (€35,299.40) on Monday - the lowest since late September - suffering in the first few sessions of 2022 from a lack of risk appetite from investors worried about the Fed tightening monetary policy.