Investing.com– The price of bitcoin rose slightly on Friday, stabilizing near all-time highs on support from a weaker dollar and growing bets on U.S. interest rate cuts ahead of key payrolls data. agricultural.
rose 0.6% in the last 24 hours to $71,327.6 at 01:55 ET (05:55 GMT). The token was expected to add more than 5% this week after it broke a $60,000 to $70,000 trading range established since mid-March.
Rate cut bets rise ahead of nonfarm payrolls data
Prices of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general were boosted by rising expectations that the Federal Reserve will begin to take action.
A series of weak US economic readings supported this idea, as traders bet that a cooling of the US economy will give the Federal Reserve more confidence to ease monetary policy. The dollar plummeted this week, also benefiting risk assets.
The readings came ahead of key data, which is due out later on Friday and is expected to offer more definitive signals on the labor market and interest rates.
Looser monetary conditions bode well for high-risk speculative assets such as cryptocurrencies, as they free up more capital that can then be put into cryptocurrency speculative activities.
Bitcoin was trading less than $3,000 below a record high as expectations of lower rates spurred a strong dose of institutional capital flows into exchange-traded funds linked to the cryptocurrency.
Enthusiasm over the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs for US markets was a key factor behind the cryptocurrency's run to record levels earlier this year.
Analysts said the prospect of lower rates could spark another record rally for the token in the near term.
Cryptocurrency price today: Altcoins hold firm, set for lackluster weekly performance
Among the broader crypto markets, major altcoins also remained in a tight trading range on Friday, in anticipation of further signals on US rates.
But most tokens were set for some weekly gains, amid expectations of lower rates and as optimism over a spot Ether ETF persisted.
The world's No. 2 token fell 0.8% to $3,814.40 and remained stable for the week.
Altcoins are treading water, and are up 1% to 3% this week.
Among the memetokens, it fell slightly. They also received little support from a certain resurgence in meme trading, after leading meme stock GME rose sharply this week.
