Investing.com — Bitcoin prices rose on Tuesday, adding to a recovery from August's declines, as investors await major economic data this week.
By 4:37 a.m. ET (08:37 GMT), it was up 2.5 percent at $58,999.70 after relatively light trading volume on Monday as the U.S. observed the Labor Day holiday.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency plunged more than 7% last week and spent much of the previous month trending lower due in part to concerns about token distributions and sell-off events, especially from the defunct Mt Gox exchange. Worries about a U.S. recession had also led to deep losses in global financial markets in early August, including cryptocurrency markets.
Attention now turns to this week's key economic data, culminating in the closely watched US non-farm payrolls release on Friday.
The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to begin cutting interest rates later this month, and payrolls data could determine the size of the reduction, which is likely to impact overall risk sentiment. Lower rates bode well for cryptocurrencies, given that they free up more liquidity for speculative trading.
Traders are pricing in a virtual 100% chance of a 25-basis-point cut in September, according to the closely watched CME Fedwatch tool.
Bitcoin's performance in September in the spotlight
While Bitcoin has gained slightly at the start of this week, it has shown a consistent pattern of underperformance in September.
Historical data reveals that Bitcoin has seen negative returns in nine of the last 13 Septembers, making it one of the worst months for the cryptocurrency with an average negative return of 5.36%.
Cryptocurrency prices today
As for cryptocurrency prices in general, the world's No. 2 digital token, Ether (), rose 1.2% to $2,499.99. It had fallen more than 20% in August, its worst month since January 2022.
and added 4.38% and 2.89%, respectively, while they lost 0.2%.
