The hard luck of the most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), continues. To add to the prevailing bad news for the Bitcoin world its price has fallen in the crypto market. It coincides, though in a contradictory manner, with the good news that the US jobs report has gained much in recent times.
To be precise about the rising graph in the US job hiring, according to a report by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 528,000 in July this year and the unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent. This is certainly not an insignificant development by any means. The job growth, the report adds, is widespread, led by gains in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and health care. Both total nonfarm employment and the unemployment rate have returned to their February 2020 pre-pandemic levels.
Though the unemployment rate dropped only by 1 percent, i.e., from 3.6 percent to 3.5 percent, the development has been a 'pleasant surprise'. It is because the number is double what was forecast by a large number of experts who are worried about the recession. The 'good' hurt Bitcoin primarily due to the perception, which has a lot of economic logic, that the rising number of jobs will further encourage the US Federal Reserve to continue with its rate hike. The now prevalent argument that the recession is considered as a brake to hiring is weakened by the buoyant job scenario in the US.
BTC had made a jump of 8% and Bitcoin trading moved in the range of US$22,600- US$24,500 as a response to the comment by Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell, that there is a chance of the Fed going slow in monetary tightening for the rest of 2022. But then the announcement by the St. Louis Federal Reserve President, James Bullard was out, declaring that the US central bank may go for an additional 1.5 percentage point increase in interest rates by the end of the year. The confusing scenario has directly hit the BTC prospects to compel it to witness a price downslide in the highly volatile crypto market. The Bitcoin prices declined almost to 2% on above-average volume soon after the US employment report surfaced. Then it recovered slightly to continue trading above US$23,000 to offer stability to the crypto market.
Bitcoin or BTC price hovered around US$50,000 and even went above US$68,000 the last November. The bad phase continues and it may persist for some time in the crypto market.
