Typically, a greater flow of new dollars to target lower interest rates inflates the prices of equities and fixed-income bonds.
Since the advent of cryptocurrencies, financial markets have found that this new asset class is especially responsive to interest rates and bears an inverse correlation to them.
Correlation Spotted: Bitcoin and Interest Rates
A recent report from the Fidelity Active Investor Learning Center notes, “While central banks do not control cryptocurrencies, some crypto analysts have observed that the US central bank in particular may be indirectly influencing the price of crypto.”
Meanwhile, according to an SPGlobal report, the daily rolling three-month correlation between interest rates and the crypto index have exhibited an inverse relationship of 63%

Over the past month or so, Bitcoin has fallen while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 have gained. Will the bulls be back after the spigots turn up the overnight cash markets?
Bitcoin is down by 6% over the 30 days ending Friday, Sept. 13, while the Nasdaq Composite is up 3.7% for the month’s trades and the benchmark S&P 500 Index is up 4% over the same period.
So what gives with Bitcoin?
Is Wall Street putting bearish selling pressure on crypto prices with outflows from the Bitcoin ETFs and going shopping with the money for NVDA, TSMC, and ASML to just bet on the chips and let Reddit users figure the rest out?
Are Bitcoin miners selling to keep up with rising industrial electricity costs since April?

Goldman Sachs Economist: 25 – 50 Basis Pt Cut
“I wouldn’t rule out 50 basis

Trading app eToro recently reached a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC announced Thursday that eToro “agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle charges that it operated an unregistered broker and unregistered clearing agency in connection with its trading platform that facilitated buying and selling certain crypto assets as securities.”
But eToro also agreed to halt trading for any cryptos except for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ether.
“By removing tokens offered as investment contracts from its platform, eToro has chosen to come into compliance and operate within our established regulatory framework,” said Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement.
The settlement may provide more insight into the SEC’s thinking about

Steven Lubka, head of private clients and family offices at Swan Bitcoin said in recent remarks to CNBC, “Do I think we’ll be in the six figures by 2025? Almost certainly. Do I think we’ll be in the six figures regardless of who wins? Almost certainly.”
That may be assuring to fast-moving crypto markets that turn on a dime and put some stock in the idea that the election outcome could swing prices one way or the other. VanEck marked $100,000 BTC target for the end of 2024 in December if Trump wins.
US Presidential Elections and Potential Impact
Shortly after Tuesday’s debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, meme coins favoring the Republican candidate plunged in price, and the Democrat flipped the Republican on Polymarket.
Polymarket

Alphabet Inc’s Google department is making great strides with its AI chatbot, Gemini. Among Large Language Model AIs (LLMs), it competes with the likes of ChatGPT, Meta AI, and X’s Grok.
As such, CryptoPotato decided to inquire about what cryptocurrency could be the next to have an exchange-traded fund in the States to track its performance.
Alphabet’s Gemini Gets to Work
While Nvidia AI chips are most popular for loading and calibrating AI chatbots, the Mountain View, California company is training Gemini on its own chips.
Google announced last week that it’s rolling out Gemini support to Google Workspace users to polish emails. The chatbot, similar to its competitors, can be asked all types of questions, including such concerning the cryptocurrency industry.
Google

The current U.S. benchmark rate for massive overnight money market loans from the central bank is in the range of 5.25% and 5.5%.
When Powell spoke in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on Friday, markets expected more signals of a regime of interest rate cutting ahead. Instead, he went a step further and explicitly endorsed rate cuts. In fact, he said it’s not a matter of if there will be cuts but how deep to make them:
“The time has come for policy to adjust. The direction of travel is clear, and the timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on incoming data, the evolving outlook and the balance of risks.”
How It Could Affect Cryptocurrency Prices
Lower interest rates and a rising dollar supply could drive up crypto prices for blockchains with supply-capped token economies. Some

The northern European country of Norway has a population of nearly 5.5 million. Moreover, the government’s investments for its citizens total some $1.7 trillion. A chunk of that is in Bitcoin stocks, and the government upped its holdings this year.
Norway Sovereign Wealth Fund’s Bitcoin Spree
Norway now indirectly owns 2,446 BTC through its investments in crypto stocks. That’s bullish news for Bitcoin. It paints an enticing picture of global sovereign support for the BTC price.
A recent report in Fortune Magazine details how the Norges Bank Investment Management fund has markedly increased its Bitcoin exposure after rebalancing its portfolio this year. The fund invests the nation’s significant oil revenues in profitable enterprises for Norway’s government.
Norway’s public

While they are issued by smart contract blockchains with base layer currencies like Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL), meme coins have fetched far greater gains in a shorter period of time than the most established cryptos.
Bitcoin, for example, gained 347% from key price support at a Dec. 31, 2022 low level of $16,500 to an all-time high Bitcoin price of $73,800 on Mar. 14, 2024. Ether, meanwhile, gained 234% from a Dec. 31, 2022 low level of $1,200 to an all-time high Ethereum price of $4,000 on Mar. 11, 2024.
How about meme currencies, then?
Dogwifhat (WIF), a Solana Program Library (SPL) meme currency, sporting a dog with a knitted beanie cap on, gained 700% this year on a monthly time scale by the time it reached its all-time high price of $3.25 on Mar. 14, same day as

For the week ending Aug. 17, Bitcoin price continued its shaky action, even as low consumer inflation signaled an upcoming dollar supply glut and the S&P 500 Index rallied.
The latest U.S. consumer inflation readout gave the Fed more ammo to justify a big rate cut in September. That’s bullish news for Bitcoin, because more dollars against the same supply of BTC is a recipe for price gains.
Meanwhile, stocks are up again and closing in fast on their July record levels. That might indicate that investors have their feet back under them after the flash crash at the beginning of August. But not so for Bitcoin and other cryptos that remain in correction territory this week.
Solana, XRP, and Polkadot prices were down by double digits this week. Other major cryptos like Ethereum,

At one of Berkshire’s world-famous annual shareholder meetings in Omaha during the late 1990s, Munger said, “The first $100,000 is a b——, but you gotta do it.”
“I don’t care what you have to do. If it means walking everywhere and not eating anything that wasn’t purchased with a coupon, find a way to get your hands on $100,000,” he noted.
So far, in the Bitcoin economy, there are over 450,000 BTC addresses that hold Bitcoin worth $100,000 or more at current crypto exchange prices.
Over 450,000 BTC Addresses Above $100K
As the year turned over to 2024, the the total number of Bitcoin addresses holding BTC worth $100,000 or more surpassed the 450,000 milestone for the third time in the asset’s short history.
The first two times the Bitcoin market and economy reached this

Bitcoin mining is not boiling the ocean, said Michael Saylor during the Aug. 7 interview on “Bloomberg Open Interest.” However, the asset sure is boiling the MicroStrategy founder’s blood for a future-proof finance platform.
Bloomberg Television’s Sonali Basak asked the insatiable Bitcoin custodian, “Beyond MicroStrategy, how do you hold Bitcoin personally? Do you have a significant personal stack in addition to what you own through MicroStrategy and through MicroStrategy stock?”
Here’s what the MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) founder and Chairman said…
Michael Saylor Advocates Hodling For Your Personal Finances
“Yeah, I do have significant personal Bitcoin holdings,” Saylor replied. “I think about four years ago, I tweeted that I have 17,732 Bitcoin. I haven’t sold any

This article represents the opinion of the author and is not to be construed as financial advice.
Ripple’s XRP may be one of the most undervalued currencies in the blue-chip blockchain economy. That’s due to XRP’s legal success against the SEC and its product development.
Could XRP price be gearing up for a moonshot bull run sometime in Q3?
Very Bullish XRP Price Prediction
XRP price analyst Egrag Crypto raised the staggering specter of a $17 XRP price sometime in the near future if Ripple bulls beat key resistance at $1 and keep it running to XRP’s all-time high price of $3.50.

#XRP : The Bent Fork ($17 & Historical Support) – UPDATE:
🔍 June 2023: We introduced “The Bent Fork Chart.” Here’s the latest scoop:
🎯 New Top Target: $17🚧 Key Resistance: $1 – both a structural

The world’s number one and two leading cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, daily transaction volume, and crypto exchange volume have almost perfectly tied for ROI from Jan. 1 through the middle of June.
For comparison, the S&P 500 Index notched up nearly 15% over that same period. But that’s more than the broad stock market benchmark usually makes in an entire year.
So even during an unusually good two quarters for U.S. stocks, Bitcoin and Ethereum delivered investors four times more ROI. In other words, Bitcoin broke the government’s investment planning tool. Again.
The average annualized ROI for Bitcoin and Ethereum price performance since Jan. 1 is aces. The top two cryptocurrencies are pacing for a +116% year.
That’s a return so high that the compound interest

Markets got a big spike in Ethereum price this week on crypto exchanges. What’s behind it and what factors can investors take into consideration to determine whether Ether or its friend Cardano is the better buy?
Ethereum has a birthday coming up on July 30. It was launched in 2015 to create a “world computer” with the same Web3 blockchain properties as Bitcoin has for storing cash and making payments.
Cardano was launched on September 23, 2017 by initial coin offering (ICO) and founded by an Ethereum co-founder, Charles Hoskinson. Today it’s the 10th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
Ethereum Market Cap (May 22): $451.8 billionCardano Market Cap (May 22): $17.2 billion
Certain differences between the two cryptocurrencies are an advantage for one or the

Dogecoin’s total market capitalization was $19.8 billion at the time of writing, with the hash work-powered meme currency trading at $0.145.
Meanwhile, Ripple XRP price moved markets at $0.5 per token, and its market cap stood at $27 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
The Ripple lawsuit versus the US SEC could be over as soon as this summer, according to one legal expert. That would be the end of an ongoing headwind for XRP and portend a rise in its fortunes.
But here are seven reasons why Dogecoin could flip Ripple’s market cap later this year with one or two little green candles.
1. Elon Musk

The circle will be completepic.twitter.com/QkT7K9QBJF
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 25, 2024

Dogecoin has Elon Musk. That’s such enormous credibility and publicity.

The high-tech industry continues to make active inroads into the blockchain industry, proposing and building out new solutions that make Web3’s products better and more usable by mainstream folks as well as sophisticated industry participants.
1. Block CEO Jack Dorsey – Bitcoin Bull
Back in 2021 at “The B-Word” conference by Crypto Council for Innovation, on a panel alongside Cathie Wood and Elon Musk, Dorsey said,
“It’s deeply principled, it’s weird as hell [and] it’s always evolving. It just reminded me of the Internet as a kid.”
You might say the Twitter, Block, and Bluesky social founder is a fan of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. The Silicon Valley whiz kid started Block (formerly Square Payments) soon after founding Twitter.
Moreover, his payments processing company

Grammy award-winning rapper Eminem recently cut an ad for Crypto.com to advertise blockchain to NBA fans. Here are 10 other celebrity endorsements that prove cryptocurrency adoption is accelerating.
But real quick first— here’s “The Real Slim Shady” singer’s X post with the Crypto.com advertisement:

You know what it’s always been. #FFTB #Ad @cryptocom pic.twitter.com/XZ3Qf7TkkR
— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) April 26, 2024

“From the beginning you couldn’t stop, breaking resistance with every swing and block. Your game plan never changed.”
Bloomberg called the collaboration between a major crypto exchange, the hip-hop superstar, and the NBA a “sign of a dramatic shift in the crypto industry’s marketing and advertising efforts.”
Celebrity crypto endorsements are appearing

A meme began making its way around crypto Twitter earlier this month, pointing out that Bitcoin now has the number of active users that the Internet had in 1997. But the reality is even more interesting:
Bitcoin most likely has far more users today than the Internet had the year Amazon debuted on Wall Street. That means Bitcoin investors may be running out of time to capitalize on stellar market returns driven by growth in user adoption.
Our Sources: 70M Internet Users 1997 | 435M BTC Users 2024

#Bitcoin has the same number of users as the Internet had in 1997.
We are just getting started. pic.twitter.com/ppX1Vc9kZy
— Vivek⚡️ (@Vivek4real_) March 23, 2024

The economics of this trade are fascinating and promising to investors who note that even if a billion or five

The markets are rallying exuberantly for BTC for a couple of reasons this March.
Institutional investors bought deep after the SEC opened up Wall Street access to Bitcoin price exposure through custodial spot ETFs. That only adds to the scarcity shock with the supply halving coming up next month.
However, many blockchain crypto trading strategists think it is hard to overstate the importance of the ETF approvals by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The new paradigm does not merely allow regulated investors to do so.
It caps off a year of incredibly welcoming and accommodating policies for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in United States courtrooms and legislatures. The risk of the U.S. passing onerous regulations has long been an important headwind for Bitcoin prices in

The future is not assured until it has passed, but successful cryptocurrency investors have relied on how powerful the recurring patterns are in these historical trends.
Here are 12 Bitcoin halving cycle protips from crypto influencers on X, the social media website formerly known as Twitter.
1. It’s Still Early On This Halving Cycle

Like clockwork 😄 #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/BrZRDsgsLN
— Thomas | heyapollo.com (@thomas_fahrer) March 2, 2024

It may feel strange to traders to step out into new waters and make long entries in BTC right after a new all-time high. But as seasoned traders know, and as you can see from the Bitcoin price chart going back to 2013 above, it’s early.
Set stop losses, make trading plans, and stay updated on the market and news, but a timid buyer

This bull run is cyclical in nature, and these seven signals suggest it is just getting started.
Just three weeks ago, on Feb. 12, Bitcoin’s price crossed the $50,000 threshold. Fundstrat Global Advisors Head of Digital Strategy Sean Farrell said, “This rally in the near term certainly has some room to run.”
He was right!
The spot rally on cryptocurrency exchanges surged to just past $70,000 on Friday, Mar. 5, before retracing to where it is currently. So, after crossing $50,000, the rally sure had some room to run.
But here are eight signs it has room to run yet after re-gaining its highest price ever for the first time in just under two-and-a-half years.
1. The Fed Rate Hasn’t Even Dropped
The Bitcoin price is soaring to new all-time highs, and the federal funds rate for

Moreover, it’s getting some new digs on Stock Twits, and another crypto exchange has added FLOKI to its trading pairs.
FLOKI coin gained more in price on cryptocurrency exchanges last week than Pepe Coin, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, Bonk Inu, or Wif. Furthermore, the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain meme coin entered the top 60 biggest cryptocurrencies by market cap.
Popular meme coin account DogecoinRise posted to X, formerly Twitter:
“Floki has outperformed $PEPE, $DOGE, $SHIB, $BONK, and $WIF in the past week and is now the 50th biggest crypto…
As I’ve said repeatedly:
I strongly believe #Floki will be the next #Doge and THE main #memecoin of this bull run!”
Floki just ended a recent seven-day period with a gain of over 200% and a 30-day period with nearly 600% in price

Speaking with CNBC’s Brian Sullivan on “Last Call,” Lee said, “It’s a generational issue” for Millennials and Gen Z, who are more open to adopting cryptocurrency.
Sullivan told the financial analyst and strategist, “I’ve never met an investment instrument that is so polarizing… There’s people who call it fake, it’s a fraud, it’s a joke, it’s worthless. You know? Why do you think Bitcoin is so polarizing?”
“It’s a generational issue,” Lee answered.
Bitcoin Generation Gap
“You know I think in crypto they refer to sort of the legacy financial folks as Boomers, because you know, Bitcoin is really being adopted and used by both younger folks, both Millennials and Gen Z, as well as people outside the U.S. Bitcoin’s really useful to the unbanked outside the U.S.,” Lee said.
A

Altcoin analyst Altcoin Gordon told over 400,000 X followers Friday that his year-end target for Ethereum is $11,250. That would be a 3.4X increase compared to current prices.
Bitcoin has received plenty of attention from the media since October between the SEC approval of Bitcoin ETFs in January and the upcoming fourth Bitcoin halving in April.

Ethereum supply dropping.
Ethereum demand increasing.
Do you understand? pic.twitter.com/txH5g9Eq4w
— Gordon (@AltcoinGordon) January 18, 2024

But an Ethereum ETF is also in the works this year, and the network has been deflationary in supply ever since a very significant upgrade in 2022.
Meanwhile, JP Morgan analysts are anticipating the Proto-Danksharding upgrade this year.

Ethereum Price Prediction: $11,250 By 2024
Altcoin

Bitcoin hash rate continues to chart astounding record highs just weeks before the fourth halving. Meanwhile, critics worry Bitcoin mining could be hazardous to the environment.
That hasn’t stopped the price from soaring to a multi-year record high of $46,670, 67% of its historical all-time high price of $69,000 in November 2021.
However, according to a recent analysis by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Bitcoin miners in the United States alone use as much electricity as the entire state of Utah.
The EIA study also estimated that Bitcoin mining accounts for somewhere between 0.6% to as much as 2.3% of all electricity demand in the U.S. in 2023.
Bitcoin Mining Environmental Concerns
Bloomberg Crypto says that mines have generated more than hash power. They’ve

China’s economy grew 5.2% in 2023, but its stock market took a 10% tumble for the year. Meanwhile, some Chinese investors sought shelter in cryptocurrency despite the government’s Bitcoin ban.
These brave souls were not unpatriotic, nor was their investment in Bitcoin against the fundamental principles of Chinese communism. In fact, they are on to something that most of the world’s governments have been slow to grok: Bitcoin represents an ideal store of value beyond borders or political ideologies.
Here are three reasons China should repeal the Bitcoin ban:
Strong Chinese Demand Despite Bitcoin Ban
Chinese GDP grew by 5.2% in 2023, but its stock market was the worst-performing equity market in the world, with a 10% fall (while the U.S. S&P 500 Index soared 25%).
As a

In short, an overbought market after months of increasing certainty about the SEC’s Bitcoin ETF approvals burst in January and allowed the price to correct some.

Historical #Bitcoin prices for today, January 26th:
2024 – $41,1742023 – $23,0162022 – $36,8002021 – $32,5022020 – $8,6082019 – $3,5712018 – $11,1182017 – $9162016 – $3902015 – $2692014 – $1,0072013 – $182012 – $5.32011 – $0.40
— Historical Bitcoin Price (@HistoryBTCPrice) January 26, 2024

During this time, short-term traders helped pump the price, then went ahead and took profits after the Bitcoin ETF approvals by “selling the news.”
Finally, tougher macro conditions, with a stronger dollar after a months-long slump, have led to more bearish sentiment for Bitcoin’s overall outlook in January.
Here are some more

An illuminating conversation unfolded on X this week about XRP Ledger’s smart contract features. A Ripple expert corrected some misconceptions that Ripple is not as feature-rich as its competitors.
Are Ripple Use Cases Limited?
If you ask Google Bard or any AI chatbot why XRP price hasn’t shown the kind of gains Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL) have this year, it might tell you it’s because Ripple doesn’t have as many use cases:
“While XRP is initially designed for fast and cheap cross-border payments, its use case hasn’t evolved or broadened significantly.
Other competitors like Ethereum and BNB Chain offer a wider range of functionalities like smart contracts and decentralized finance (DeFi), which might attract more user interest and drive price appreciation.” – Google

Foreclosing on a vacant home in Baltimore can take two to three years, according to a report in the Baltimore Sun. It’s a legally arduous process in Maryland.
Foreclosure requires city officials to wait on title searches to verify the entire ownership history of the house.
As a result of the multiple title searches required for each step in the process of acquiring, fixing up, and selling a home, you’d be lucky to get everything done in four or five months. Meanwhile, the vacant home can attract critters, crime, and hazardous conditions.

Baltimore Orders Home Real Estate Blockchain
But the city is hoping to solve this with a $225,000 blockchain project. Its spending board agreed to the contract for it in December. The Baltimore Sun reports:

“Over the three-year pilot,

Apple, which announced its Vision Pro headset in June, saw its share price grow by 55% in 2023. Meanwhile, Amazon stock gained 79% as its AWS division pushed for AI-focused products.
But these leading “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks did not make it into the top ten by yearly returns for 2023. The tech industry stocks that did were all Bitcoin mining stocks. Moreover, Wall Street’s top ten performers this year included not one, not two or three, but four Bitcoin mining companies.

Wall Street Mania For Bitcoin Mining Stocks
The impressive showing proves that mainstream investor interest in cryptocurrency is increasing. The four Bitcoin mining stocks that outperformed nearly the entire market were:
Cipher Mining (CIFR) at number three for the entire year after gaining 1,042%