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Bitcoin (BTC-USD) continues to rally as the digital asset trades above $42,000 — more than 1.5% for the day — extending its gains of 150% year-to-date. The upward momentum comes as crypto investors become more hopeful about interest rate cuts and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approval for a spot bitcoin ETF.
Yahoo Finance Anchors Julie Hyman and Josh Lipton break down the latest developments with the cryptocurrency.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.
Video Transcript
JULIE HYMAN: Let’s talk about another rally that we’ve seen this year. That is in Bitcoin. We are seeing it up again today, 1.6% year-to-date. It’s up over 150%. And there are some potential catalysts here. Investors are betting on Fed rate cuts. They’re hopeful also, of course, the Securities and Exchange will soon approve the first spot bitcoin ETF.
A couple of other things that are out there, here we have been seeing more inflows into crypto exchanges. CoinDesk citing some data from IntoTheBlock and saying that it saw $860 billion of net inflows into exchanges last week, which is the highest level since March. Now, on the flip side, they said when people move their assets to exchanges from, say, cold storage perhaps, that might mean they want to sell. So that could be maybe a little bit of a bearish counter indicator, because Bitcoin’s done so well. And coming into the end of the year, maybe people want to start taking some profits.
JOSH LIPTON: Yeah. I mean, a couple of big things. One is the expectation that the Fed’s going to cut rates, so that, obviously, supports risk sensitive assets stocks, crypto, too. The expectation is still out there. Julie, we’ve talked so much about this that the SEC is really going to approve that spot bitcoin ETF. And there’s been– you know, listen, plenty of heavy hitters can’t wait to sell you that product, so BlackRock, Invesco. And we’ve had this kind of conversation with a lot of smart folks about whether that really is a catalyst for Bitcoin into 2024.
There was a good note from the team at JPMorgan saying just that, arguing they’re actually kind of cautious on crypto markets next year, see a high chance of buy-the-rumor, sell-the-fact, they’re telling clients, once that SEC does approve spot bitcoin ETF. So we’ll see how it shakes out.
JULIE HYMAN: Yeah. And there’s also some evidence, by the way, that retail investors have not been getting in or at least not getting in a new to this group. If you look at app downloads, which is something that some of the journalists out there have been doing, we have not seen the kind of downloads of bitcoin or crypto-buying apps that we saw during the past boom cycles. But maybe that’s because people bought it, and now they’re hanging on to it. It’s difficult to say.
JOSH LIPTON: So what a move. I mean, Bitcoin up somewhat 150% this year. Tremendous.
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