First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Regains $64K as ETF Flow Trends Flip Positive

This article originally appeared in First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily newsletter, putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every day.

CoinDesk 20 Index: 2,056.03 +1.34% Bitcoin (BTC): $64,350.91 +1.14% Ether (ETH): $2,6424.48 +0.09% S&P 500: 5,722.26 -0.19% Gold: $2,678.25 +0.8% Nikkei 225: 38,925.63 +2.79%

Bitcoin rose above $64,000 during the European morning to around $64,300, trading just over 1% higher in the last 24 hours. Other major tokens also registered gains, with ether adding 0.4% to $2,630. The CoinDesk 20 Index, a weighted measurement of the digital asset market at large, rose nearly 1.2%. In other markets, gold hit a record high and Asian stocks surged amid reports that China’s central bank will inject around $142 billion of stimulus into the biggest state banks to increase their capacity to support the struggling economy.

Bitcoin ETF inflows cracked $100 million for the second consecutive day on Wednesday and stretched their winning streak to five days. That flipped an indicator tracking 30-day net holdings among ETFs to positive for the first time this month, data from CryptoQuant shows, suggesting a rising trend of accumulation as opposed to sales. Ether ETFs enjoyed a second consecutive day of inflows, netting $43.2 million. While the ETH products remain over $500 million in the red since they listed in July, ether has outperformed bitcoin since the Fed’s rate cut last week, which coincided with an increase in network transactions and rising Ethereum transaction costs, known as gas fees.

Ethereum layer 2 Celo is challenging Tron’s position as the blockchain with the most daily active addresses using stablecoins. The seven-day moving average of the measure on Celo has climbed to nearly 700,000, nearly matching Tron’s tally, according to data tracked by Artemis. The surge follows Tether’s decision to deploy its industry-leading dollar-pegged stablecoin, USDT, on Celo in March. Since then, USDT worth over $200 million has been issued on Celo. On Wednesday, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin cheered Celo’s progress on X, galvanizing investor interest in the CELO token. As of writing, the cryptocurrency traded at 63 cents, representing a nearly 20% gain on a 24-hour basis, according to CoinDesk data.

– Omkar Godbole