Bitcoin Rises, Ether and XRP Fall. What Trends Say About This Crypto Slump. — Barrons.com

By Elsa Ohlen

The price of Bitcoin and smaller cryptocurrencies including XRP were mixed early Wednesday even as stock futures rose slightly, hurt by signs the U.S. economy is slowing.

Bitcoin price rose 0.2% over the past 24 hours to $114,168, according to CoinDesk data. The world's largest crypto is now down 3.1% over the past seven days.

Ether and XRP fell 0.8% and 4.7%, respectively. Solana dropped 2%. The second, third, and sixth largest digital coins by market value are down between 4.8% and 7.9% over the past seven days.

While stock markets initially fell on Friday's weaker-than-expected jobs report, benchmark indexes have cautiously tried to recover this week as the numbers seem to boost chances of a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut in September.

Futures tracking the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 were up about 0.1% each.

Cryptos, typically seen as a risk asset, tend to suffer in times of heightened uncertainty and a sluggish economy as traders tend to favor safe-haven assets.

Current trends suggest the crypto slump is temporary and an attempt by traders to lock in profits and gain liquidity, FxPro analyst Alex Kuptsikevich said Wednesday. "At the same time, however, such sluggishness is turning away the most active traders, who are used to seeing multiple rallies."

Write to Elsa Ohlen at elsa.ohlen@barrons.com

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