Bitcoin Falls on Stronger Dollar, Shows Signs of ‘Maturing as Digital Collateral’

cryptonews.com:

Bitcoin (BTC) kept falling on Friday as the US dollar jumped higher following strong economic data that showed the number of jobs created in the US rose much more than expected.

As of Friday at 17:15 UTC, BTC stood at USD 40,879, down almost 4% for the day but up 7% for the past 7 days. At the same time, ethereum (ETH) traded at USD 2,690, down 5% for the day and up almost 4% for the week.

As often happens on days when the US dollar is strong, however, bitcoin struggled.

“Bitcoin sold off to retest the 20-day moving average at around USD 41,000 this morning, after the impressive 32% rally over the past week,” said Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst at the digital asset broker GlobalBlock.

He added that BTC “failed to secure a higher-high on the daily time frame,” closing below the key USD 46,000 level. 

“Bitcoin is not bullish on the daily time frame until this level is reclaimed,” Sotiriou said.

However, Bloomberg Intelligence’s Senior Commodity Strategist Mike McGlone said that bitcoin is showing signs of strength as it outperforms the Nasdaq stock index, and that it is “maturing toward global digital collateral.”

In the world of traditional finance, the US S&P 500 index traded down by 0.93% for the day at the same time. Meanwhile, Brent oil continued higher for the week, seeing its strongest weekly gains since mid-2020. The oil price reached a high just shy of USD 120 earlier in the week, and traded at USD 114.50 as of press time.

Gold also continued higher, rising 1.27% for the day to a price of USD 1,961.

In Russia, the stock market remained closed for its fifth consecutive day on Friday, while the Russian ruble recorded a weekly fall against the US dollar of more than 30%. The drop sent the ruble to an all-time low of USD 0.00799