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Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is on track to post a weekly return gain of ~11%, at the highest levels in almost a month, amid renewed concerns about the health of regional banks.
New York Community Bancorp is looking to offload risk related to a large portfolio of residential mortgages and add liquidity to its Flagstar Bank unit.
“Conversations about the banking crisis and positive government data on inflation were key drivers of the surge,” said Dan Raju, CEO of brokerage Tradier.
Bitcoin (BTC-USD) surpassed the $48,000 mark for the first time in a month on Friday, pushing cryptocurrency-related stocks higher as well. While major cryptocurrencies saw tepid trading last week, they rebounded in the week ending February 9, trading in the $42,000 to $48,000 range.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs (BTC-USD) have also seen consistent inflows, recording the third-largest inflow of $403 million on Feb. 8, Coin Telegraph reported. Total ETF inflows have already exceeded $2.1 billion since their launch last month.
“This time, Bitcoin (BTC-USD) price action looks stronger ahead of the halving and, in our view, will likely maintain momentum for the rest of the year,” said Bernstein analyst Gautam Chhugani . He recommended buying cryptocurrency mining stocks, among which his top picks are Riot Platforms (RIOT) and CleanSpark (CLSK).
Noteworthy news
- Cryptocurrency custody and trading platform Bakkt (BKKT) said on Thursday that there is “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue operating into next year without raising capital.
- CleanSpark (CLSK) reported an unexpected quarterly profit on Thursday, as Bitcoin (BTC-USD) mining revenues jumped 166% from a year earlier, thanks to the BTC price rally.
- Cryptocurrency exchange Binance will delist privacy coin monero (XMR-USD) on February 20, sending the token tumbling 28.2% on Tuesday. It also plans to delist the aragon (ANT-USD), multichain (MULTI-USD) and vai (VAI-USD) tokens.
- Former President Donald Trump, who personally owns cryptocurrency investments, said central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) can be “a very dangerous thing.”
- Bitcoin (BTC-USD) miners reported their January production this week, with Marathon Digital (MARA) production down 42% M/M, Riot (RIOT) down 16% M/M, CleanSpark (CLSK) Down 19.86% M/M. /M and Argo Blockchain (OTCPK:ARBKF) down 20% M/M.
Bitcoin, ether prices
Bitcoin (BTC-USD) increased by ~4.26% at $47.4K at 4:36 pm ET on Friday and ether (ETH-USD) rallied slightly ~2.50% at $2.5K.
SA contributor WisdomTree believes there are multiple signals, one of which is volatility, that show Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is maturing as an asset class.
“The fact that spot exposure to Bitcoin (BTC-USD) was available in the ETF structure was an important milestone, but it was just one of a number of signs that Bitcoin as an asset class is on its journey to maturation.”