- The cryptocurrency led the crypto market rally on Monday by breaking above $24,000.
- Price data also showed a significant advance for altcoins in the last 24 hours.
- After the July employment figures were released, many investors are turning to risk assets again.
Bitcoin (BTC) managed to rally 4% early Monday in European markets and as of 9:01 a.m. (GMT-4) it was trading at 24,119, according to data from Coindesk.com. The price of the largest cryptocurrency by market value has been buoyed by strong employment data from the United States.
Both digital assets such as European equities and US stock futures, were favored in the market after the revelation of payroll data last week indicating a 5.2% increase in hiring in July.
Along with the rise of BTC, Ether and the other altcoins saw significant increases in their price in the last 24 hours. Ether was up 5.36% to settle at $1,790, Polkadot gained 7.85%, Avalanche’s AVAX 7.64%, Solana 5.93%, Cardano 4.38% and BNB 3.77%.
The strong jobs data suggests that the US economy could manage to ride out inflation and avoid the “hard landing” that some analysts have predicted. Even despite the aggressive adjustments the Federal Reserve is making.
“Sentiment across the markets looks a little fragile this morning and yet crypto appears to have shrugged off Friday’s shock much more quickly,” said Oanda Senior Markets Analyst Craig Erlam. He noted that Bitcoin appears to have its "sights set on $25,000." The cryptocurrency managed to rally after several weeks of oscillating movements below $20,000. "The momentum indicators will be fascinating here as the recovery appeared to be losing steam during the last ascent in late July," the analyst added. So far this year, BTC has lost about 47% of its value due to the bear market that has hit the cryptocurrency. Although it still remains below its highest price level achieved in November 2021, when it traded at $68,991.
Bitcoin is tied to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100
Both the price of Bitcoin and altcoins have been seriously affected by the collapse of several companies in the sector and important projects such as the Terra stablecoin in May.
The industry is once again trying to make up lost ground during the so-called crypto winter. The monetary policy of the Fed and inflation have been decisive in setting the course for cryptocurrencies in recent months.
On the other hand, Bitcoin is strongly related to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100, the main stock indices on Wall Street. On Monday the correlation was greater than 0.6. “A level of 1 would mean the two are trading in lock step, while 0 would mean they are not linked at all,” explained Bloomberg.
“With another 75 basis-point rate hike next month now the favoured outcome”, Erlam noted. “Although a lot can change in that time, it could be a nervy couple of days for investors ahead of Wednesday’s inflation report”.