First Mover Americas: BTC Tops $61K, But Traders Remain Cautious

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CoinDesk 20 Index: 1,961 +3.2% Bitcoin (BTC): $61,384 +4.4% Ether (ETH): $2,754 +4.3% S&P 500: 5,434.43 +1.7% Gold: $2,513 +1.9% Nikkei 225: 36,442.43 +0.58%

Bitcoin topped $61,000, reversing some of its losses from the steep drop at the start of August. BTC has risen more than 4% in the last 24 hours, outperforming the broader crypto market, which has increased just over 2%, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 Index. Despite the gains, some trading funds remain cautious amid a busy week for data, warning of possible short-term tremors that could impede the rally. “Investors remain cautious ahead of US CPI this week,” crypto trading firm QCP Capital said in a Telegram broadcast. “They will closely watch inflation numbers for guidance on whether the Fed will cut rates by 50 or 25 bps in September. The odds are now evenly split.”

Goldman Sachs holds positions in seven of the 11 U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs, totaling over $400 million. Its largest holding is BlackRock’s IBIT at $238.6 million, followed by Fidelity’s FBTC at $79.5 million, then $56.1 million of Invesco Galaxy’s BTCO, according to its quarterly 13-F report. During CoinDesk’s Consensus 2024 festival in Austin, Mathew McDermott, the bank’s global head of digital assets, said the BTC ETFs were a “big psychological turning point” for the industry. “The bitcoin ETF obviously has been an astonishing success,” McDermott said on stage. Goldman Sachs’ digital asset desk is primarily focused on the digitization of assets.

Coinbase appears to be developing a version of wBTC to run on its layer-2 blockchain Base. Speculation was sparked by cryptic posts from Coinbase late Tuesday U.S. time. The posts contained the wording: “cbBTC” and “Coming soon.” They were followed by a post from Jesse Pollak, who runs Base, saying how the team plans to build a “massive bitcoin economy” on the network. Wrapping a crypto token is a way of making it available on protocols other than the one it was originally designed for, bringing increased liquidity to the target ecosystem.

– Jamie Crawley