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Bitcoin rose to above $20,000 after the US jobs report was released Friday but has pared those gains and has fallen back below that level.
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Bitcoin
crossed $20,000 on Friday after the US jobs report initially excited investors but pared those gains and has fallen back below that level to a range it has been trading within for the past week.
Bitcoin has declined 0.2% over the past 24 hours to $19,801, according to CoinDesk. The world’s largest cryptocurrency has dropped about 1% over the past one week. For the year, Bitcoin has fallen about 57%.
Bitcoin jumped to above $20,000 in the hours after the jobs report showed the US added 315,000 workers to payrolls in August, a little more than economists expected and a result that revealed a labor market that has remained strong for the past year and a half. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, rose to 3.7% last month as more workers rejoined the labor force.
After initial gains for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies — and stocks — the gains evaporated as investors realized the increase in jobs could mean a Federal Reserve that won’t be taking its foot off the gas anytime soon in its effort to cool historically high inflation.
Cryptocurrencies and stocks have been closely correlated and both asset classes are sensitive to swings in risk sentiment. Friday was a good example.
ether,
the second-largest crypto, has fallen 2.5% to $1,551 over the past 24 hours. “The Merge,” Ether’s planned network upgrade, is set to start in less than a week. Enthusiasm for Ether has lifted the crypto in recent weeks. It has gained 5% over the past one week but remains down about 58% for the year, according to CoinDesk.
Write to Joe Woelfel at joseph.woelfel@barrons.com
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