Bitcoin may be down more than 65% from its all-time high of $69,000 in November 2021, but it’s a sterling July: The biggest cryptocurrency is up 19% in the past 30 days and has its best month since last year . ,
According to CoinMarketCap, the digital asset was trading at $24,094 at the time of writing. That’s a seven-day increase of about 3%. But more importantly, Bitcoin’s 30-day increase is the biggest since October.
These can be seen as bullish signals, as bitcoin and the rest of the crypto market have been hit hard by rising inflation and a possible impending global recession. As the Fed raises interest rates, investors are abandoning “risky” assets. This includes US equities but also bitcoin (and other digital coins and tokens), which are famously volatile.
Looking at today’s data, the asset is doing better than expected – and is still closely tied to the US stock market, a typical pattern seen in 2022. US stocks rose for the third day in a row on Friday and are set to deliver their best performance. Investors are less afraid of the Federal Reserve’s moves to quell inflation.
And bitcoin isn’t the only digital asset having a good month: Ethereum is now trading at $1,745 – a 55% 30-day increase.
As reported yesterday, this is probably related to the long-awaited and rapidly impending upgrade to the second largest cryptocurrency called “Merge”. By September, Ethereum is expected to move to a more energy efficient consensus mechanism called Proof of Stake.
This upgrade will eliminate the need for miners, instead of relying on validators to keep the network secure and process transactions locked down to the blockchain’s native cryptocurrency. Some say the merger could have a deflationary effect on the cryptocurrency, so investors are more bullish than previously thought.
This run could still be short-lived for both Bitcoin and Ethereum: a bear market could hurt investors if inflation remains high and the digital asset continues to follow equities.