The crypto market is on fire again.
The stock market is on fire on Thursday and that has extended to cryptocurrencies as well. Over the past 24 hours, the value of Bitcoin (BTC 5.46%) jumped 6.5% at 1 p.m. ET to $63,700, Ethereum (ETH 6.31%) is up 7.6% to $2,470, and Dogecoin (DOGE 4.88%) is up 6.3% to $0.1068.
The entire crypto market is up big and so is the stock market, driven by high volatility and high-growth stocks. The correlation between crypto and growth stocks continues.
The Fed strikes again
The market’s reaction was a bit delayed, but the move today was driven by the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates by 50 basis points yesterday.
A rate cut is intended to make it less costly for businesses to borrow money, spurring economic activity. That’s a reason stocks are up today and growth stocks are performing particularly well.
The downside is the reason for rate cuts in the first place. The rate of growth is slowing in the U.S. and the unemployment rate is moving slightly higher. While inflation may not be a problem, the unemployment rate and consumer spending trends could indicate a recession is ahead.
For today, those concerns are on the back burner and investors are buying into all kinds of asset classes, including crypto.
More rate cuts ahead?
One of the more bullish notes today came out of Bank of America, which said it expects three more rate cuts totaling 75 basis points by the end of the year.
If that’s true, it would be both good for the value of risky assets and likely bad news for the economy.
Blockchain improvements
Ethereum’s developers have confirmed they will split the next big upgrade to the blockchain into two parts. That reduces the risk of bugs and the upgrades are expected to start in early 2025.
One of the reasons Ethereum has fallen behind other blockchains recently is its relatively slow speed and high transaction costs. Upgrades are intended to improve those two factors, but they’ve been very slow to come on the Ethereum blockchain.
Questions about the future of crypto
Despite today’s huge move higher, there are still plenty of questions about the future of cryptocurrency values. Congress has yet to pass crypto legislation that would allow more companies to develop businesses on the blockchain and create a path forward for token usage.
There’s also plenty of uncertainty around how blockchains and crypto tokens will interact in the future. USD Coin has become widely used, even on the Ethereum blockchain, and if that’s the transaction medium what value will the tokens themselves have?
Bitcoin has developed a niche as a store of value digitally, but there’s likely to be just one such cryptocurrency.
That’s what will keep me from buying this jump today. I think lower interest rates are generally a warning sign about the economy and without regulatory certainty and a growing crypto economy I think the bounce in values will be short lived.
Bank of America is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. Travis Hoium has positions in Ethereum. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bank of America, Bitcoin, and Ethereum. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
