Bitcoin ETF Gains Spike, Setting Five-Week High as Fed Signals Rate Cuts Near

Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw a surge in investment last week, setting a five-week high following the strongest signal yet from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that interest rates might be lowered in the United States.

A total of $533 million hit investment funds that give investors exposure to digital assets last week, data from European digital asset manager CoinShares shows. The firm added that investors stepped up their bets Friday following a highly-anticipated speech by the Fed boss. 

Investors have been waiting for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates since the central bank hiked them to a two-decade high in 2022 to tame inflation. On Friday, Powell said that policy change was imminent. The price of Bitcoin, the biggest digital asset, spiked as a result as investors threw money at the asset. 

Bitcoin funds alone saw $543 million worth of inflows last week, making up for negative flows across all other crypto funds that CoinShares tracks.

“Interestingly, the majority of those inflows were on Friday, following the dovish comments from Jerome Powell, indicating Bitcoin’s sensitivity to interest rate expectations,” CoinShares Head of Research James Butterfill said in a report today.

He added that most of the money thrown into crypto investment funds came from American investors and were focused on the Bitcoin ETFs, although some cash came from investors in Switzerland and Hong Kong. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission approved the launch of 10 spot Bitcoin ETFs in January. The funds, managed by the likes of Wall Street giants such as BlackRock, Fidelity, and VanEck, allow speculators to buy shares that trade on stock exchanges and track the price of the cryptocurrency. Ethereum ETFs followed and began trading late last month.

In another bullish signal for the space, Bitcoin-loving independent candidate for U.S. president Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last week suspended his campaign, saying he’d support Donald Trump and pull his name from the ballots in swing states. That's being done in an effort to avoid throwing the election to Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, Kennedy said.

The move to back Trump was broadly interpreted as favorable for the crypto industry, as the Republican candidate has been the loudest among presidential hopefuls in supporting the digital asset space. 

Bitcoin’s price currently stands at $63,211, rising nearly 9% over the past seven days. The virtual coin touched an all-time high of $73,747 back in March, but has since struggled to reach that level due in part to various macroeconomic factors.

Edited by Andrew Hayward