BITCOIN climbed to the highest level in two weeks as a mixed reaction to China’s latest stimulus efforts emboldened wagers that speculators will chase after cryptocurrencies rather than the nation’s stocks.
The largest digital asset rose as much as 3.5 per cent on Monday (Oct 14) before paring some of the increase to change hands at US$64,900 as of 7.19 am in New York. Smaller tokens including second-ranked Ether and top-10 coin Solana advanced too.
China is striving to revive its economy but a highly anticipated weekend policy briefing failed to specify exactly how much fiscal stimulus the government plans to inject. Economists are unconvinced that officials are doing enough to defeat deflation, and a world-beating rally in Chinese equities has begun to fray.
“Markets are probably taking a disappointing China stimulus to be positive news for Bitcoin, as capital rotation from Bitcoin into Chinese equities was understood to be previously weighing on crypto prices,” said Caroline Mauron, co-founder of Orbit Markets, a provider of liquidity for trading in digital-asset derivatives.
The US presidential race may be providing another prop for digital assets. Prediction markets have flipped in the past few days, assigning pro-crypto Republican candidate Donald Trump higher odds of victory than Democratic rival vice-president Kamala Harris.
Meanwhile, the bankrupt Mt Gox crypto exchange last week pushed back by a year to Oct 31, 2025 the creditor repayment deadline for its remaining assets, which Arkham Intelligence estimates at about US$2.9 billion. The delay eases concerns of a supply overhang from creditors looking to sell returned Bitcoin.
“The recent improvement in Trump polling will amplify the market’s receptiveness and the positive price impact of good news,” said Benjamin Celermajer, co-chief investment officer at Magnet Capital. “Good news such as the Mt. Gox delayed repayment plan will be received more positively.”
Bitcoin is now little changed for October after a weak start to a month that delivered an average 20 per cent climb in the past decade, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“Historical data suggests that October’s seasonal strength in crypto markets is typically weighted towards the latter half of the month,” Sean Farrell, head of digital-asset strategy at Fundstrat Global Advisors, wrote in a note. BLOOMBERG
