Published: April 26, 2023 at 11:46 a.m. ET
Bitcoin rallied more than 8.6% Wednesday to its highest level in a week, after renewed selling of First Republic stock FRC revived concerns about the health of the U.S. banking sector.
The largest cryptocurrency BTCUSD on Wednesday briefly topped $30,000 according to CoinDesk data. Bitcoin has gained over 75% year-to-date though is still down over 55% from its all-time high in 2021.
Shares…
Bitcoin rallied more than 8.6% Wednesday to its highest level in a week, after renewed selling of First Republic stock
FRC
revived concerns about the health of the U.S. banking sector.
The largest cryptocurrency
BTCUSD
on Wednesday briefly topped $30,000 according to CoinDesk data. Bitcoin has gained over 75% year-to-date though is still down over 55% from its all-time high in 2021.
Shares of First Republic
FRC
fell 20% Wednesday morning to around $6.75 after a 49% plunge on Tuesday. The stock was trading around $125 a share at the start of the year. The San Francisco-based bank said Monday that deposits fell 41% in the first quarter, though withdrawals have stabilized in April.
“The crypto market learned last month that the banking crisis works favorably for bitcoin’s price,” according to Yuya Hasegawa, market analyst at Bitbank.
The collapse of several banks in March including Silicon Valley Bank and Signature helped contribute to bitcoin’s rally from below $20,000 to close to $30,000 in a month, as some sought the crypto as a hedge against the existing financial system, industry participants said.
Read: Bank sector stress may provide a bullish case for cryptocurrencies. Here’s how
Still crypto remains sensitive to interest rate rises by the Federal Reserve. It remains unclear when the Federal Reserve will stop raising its key interest rate, “and there has been virtually no clues from the Fed members when they will start to cut rates,” noted Hasegawa.
