On Friday, March 8, the price of the leading cryptocurrency nearly reached $70,000, with Bitcoin hitting $69,991 on the Binance exchange.
At the time of writing, the price had adjusted to around $68,000. Over the past 24 hours, digital gold has risen by 1.2%, according to CoinGecko.
Meanwhile, Ethereum reached $3,993. At the time of writing, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is attempting to break the $4,000 level, with a 2.3% increase over the past 24 hours.
The total market capitalization exceeds $2.7 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance index stands at 49.6%, while ETH’s is 17.5%.
Meme coins are showing significant growth. Over the past 24 hours, PEPE has gained 21.1%, while FLOKI and WIF have increased by 58.8% and 14.4%, respectively. DOGE and SHIB have shown more modest gains of 3.7% and 4.8%.
The rise in leading cryptocurrencies comes amid the release of U.S. unemployment data. The February rate exceeded forecasts by 0.2%, reaching 3.9%.
US Jobs Report: The two month revision results in a 3 month avg gain of 244K & 6 month avg gain of 228K. Thus the trend hiring appears to be accelerating and this will advance talk of less rate hikes and reinforces the Fed forecast of three rate hikes this year.
— Joseph Brusuelas (@joebrusuelas) March 8, 2024
“Thus, the trend in hiring appears to be accelerating, which will advance discussions of fewer rate hikes and supports the Fed forecast of three rate hikes this year,” wrote economist Joseph Brusuelas.
In a comment to CoinDesk, Slater Hale, co-founder of the DeFi platform Blueberry Protocol, noted that as leading cryptocurrencies rise, there is a “side effect” where coins on Ethereum and Solana, as well as meme tokens, also increase in value.
“Investors will make the most of bullish conditions, and meme coins are one way to do this. In the short term, I expect a shift back to ‘fundamentally driven’ altcoins,” Hale warned.
Kaiko highlighted trading volumes, which “have reached multi-year highs, exceeding $20 billion.”
#ETH is trading just below $4k ?
Traders are back strong, with volumes just hitting multi-year highs above $20bn. pic.twitter.com/ENW1xTG1KM
— Kaiko (@KaikoData) March 8, 2024
Amidst this, users of X have again reported issues on the American exchange Coinbase. The platform has experienced delays twice, with client balances periodically “resetting.”
I would like to know if Coinbase Institutional is down too… pic.twitter.com/OVwkjpV5jg
— ?????? (@ElliotFantom) March 8, 2024
Previously, Jag Kooner, head of derivatives at Bitfinex, noted the growth bets on Bitcoin reaching $70,000 in options. According to him, the preference for call options over put options is a bullish signal for the market.
In February, analysts at Amberdata expressed the opinion that Ethereum will outpace Bitcoin in growth rates due to its “more constructive deflationary policy.”
Investment Director of Bitwise Matt Hougan predicted that the price of digital gold would exceed $80,000 in the foreseeable future thanks to the success of ETFs.
According to JPMorgan, the upcoming halving in April could trigger a sharp decline in the price of the leading cryptocurrency.