Bitcoin may be down over 65% from its November 2021 all-time high of just above $69,000, but it’s having a sterling July: the biggest cryptocurrency is up 19% in the past 30 days and is set to have its best month since last year.
The digital asset at the time of writing was trading for $24,094, according to CoinMarketCap. That’s a seven-day increase of nearly 3%. But more importantly, Bitcoin’s 30-day rise is the biggest spike it’s had since October.
These could be seen as bullish signals, as Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto market has been hit hard by rising inflation and a potential incoming worldwide recession. As the Fed has raised interest rates, investors are shedding “risky” assets. This includes U.S. equities but also Bitcoin (and other digital coins and tokens), which are famously volatile.
Given today’s data, the asset is doing better than expected—and is still closely aligned to the U.S. stock market, a typical pattern seen in 2022. U.S. stocks were up for the third day in a row Friday, and are set to have their best day in nearly two years as investors seem less spooked by the Federal Reserve’s moves to cool inflation.
And Bitcoin isn’t the only digital asset that’s having a good month: Ethereum is now trading for $1,745—a 55% 30-day increase.
As reported yesterday, this is possibly related to the long-awaited and fast-approaching upgrade to the second largest cryptocurrency known as "the merge.” By September, Ethereum is expected to have moved over to a more energy efficient consensus mechanism called proof of stake.
This upgrade will eliminate the need for miners, instead relying on validators to keep the network secure and process transactions by locking up the blockchain’s native cryptocurrency. Some say the merge could have a deflationary effect on the cryptocurrency, so investors are more bullish than previously.
This run could still be short lived for both Bitcoin and Ethereum: if inflation remains high and digital assets continue to follow equities, the bear market could continue to hurt investors.