Bitcoin (BTC) soared more than $28,000 as investors appeared to react to mildly encouraging first-quarter earnings from the parent company of tech giants Google, Alphabet and Microsoft, and the liquidation of a number of short bitcoin positions.
The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was recently trading at over $28,250, up 2.8% in the past 24 hours. BTC had been trading sideways most of Tuesday before surging shortly after US stock markets closed.
BTC’s late surge came as Google parent company Alphabet and Microsoft slightly beat analysts’ expectations and data from analytics firm Coinglass showed around $11.3 million in short positions in BTC. had been liquidated since 4 p.m. ET. These types of short squeezes have historically tended to accelerate price jumps.
Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, followed a similar trend and rose 1.8% to change hands at around $1,869. ETH slid as low as $1,804 on Tuesday morning, according to data from CoinDesk.
Major stock indexes closed in the red on Tuesday afternoon, a day after the troubled First Republic Bank (FRC) said in its quarterly results that it had lost $100 billion in deposits, reigniting the concern about regional banks. Last month, Silicon Valley and Signature banks both imploded. On Tuesday, shares of First Republic fell nearly 50%.
The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed down 1.5% and 1.9%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was down 1% for the day.
In bond markets, the yield on the two-year Treasury note fell 19 basis points to 3.94%, while the 10-year Treasury yield fell around 11 basis points to 3.40% .
“In this earnings season, it looks like the outlook isn’t too bad and that should mean the (Federal Reserve) can stay on course to tighten, with the risks of a June hike still on the table,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst at forex market maker Oanda, wrote in a Tuesday note.
“After this string of earnings and the latest consumer confidence report, the one thing everyone can agree on is that personal consumption is going to be much lower going forward,” Moya added. .
In an email to CoinDesk, Stefan Rust, CEO of data aggregator Truflation, struck an optimistic note, writing that the current macroeconomic uncertainties, including the ongoing monetary policy debate, have again underlined the potential of cryptography.
“Now is the time for crypto to shine against all of this adversity, regulation, compliance/obedience as the fiat world grapples with debt, banking concentration and this shift to a multi-polarized world with so much distrust of institutions and the lack of guidance and leadership from politicians,” Rust wrote.
He added: “If not now, crypto will just become another technology providing rails for legacy systems that they want to bring into compliance so incumbents can sustain and manage incremental transitions, rather than jump into a new modern era of financial innovation without intermediaries.”