bitcoin It regained ground on Wednesday, rising back to nearly $124,000 after rising to $120,000 the previous day. It was recently trading at $123,500, up 1.5% in the last 24 hours.
Altcoins continued the upward movement, but did not recover the levels seen at the beginning of the week. Ethereum undulation solarium , and each added between 1% and 3%. The CoinDesk 20 index, which tracks a basket of major digital assets, rose 2%.
As for cryptocurrency-related stocks, BTC miners linked to high-performance computing infrastructure once again led the gains. Cipher Mining (CIFR) and Bitfarms (BITF) rose between 11% and 12%, while CleanSpark (CLSK) and Hut 8 (HUT) added around 6%. The gains are based on optimism that demand for computing power driven by artificial intelligence will benefit crypto miners.
Meanwhile, minutes from the Federal Reserve’s September meeting released Wednesday showed that most officials still anticipate interest rate cuts later this year. However, some authorities argued that a cut was not necessary in September and most emphasized the upside risks to inflation.
Gold continues to lead the downgrade trade
Despite the cryptocurrency rebound, gold continues to lead the “debasement trade”, surpassing $4,000 and now down 50% this year.
The rally is driven by rising government deficits, unstable bond markets and expectations of looser monetary policy. Japanese yields hit 17-year highs this week, raising global investor anxiety and sending capital into safe-haven gold at the expense of risky assets like cryptocurrencies.
Charlie Morris, chief investment officer at ByteTree, said gold’s rally is not driven by speculation.
“The market is red hot, but not red hot,” he said. “If deficits, money printing, instability and rate cuts are driving up the price of gold, perhaps those things need to change before we turn bearish.”
“Gold will hit an intermediate peak at some point, but it’s best not to guess when that will happen and wait for evidence,” he added.
Bitcoin, he argued, could be the next asset to get a bid once gold’s shine fades, pointing to the largest cryptocurrency’s historic role as a second-wave beneficiary in macro-driven risk rotations.
“When gold starts to cool down, bitcoin will most likely come back up,” Morris said.
Matthew Sigel, head of digital asset research at VanEck, reiterated in his long-term outlook that bitcoin could eventually capture half the size of the gold market.
That scenario, he explained in a Tuesday X post, depends on Bitcoin as “digital gold” being a more attractive store of value for younger generations.
With gold’s latest gains, that projection would imply a price of $644,000 per BTC, he said.
