The price of bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, briefly jumped above $62,000 on Friday morning, a marked upturn for a cryptocurrency that plunged below $50,000 on Monday as global markets were jolted by worries over a possible global recession.
The surge in bitcoin's performance was owed to better-than-expected U.S. unemployment insurance figures that were released this week. According to the U.S. Labor Department, last week only saw 233,000 unemployment claims, despite economist projections that the number would be higher.
Bitcoin also saw at least $91 billion in traded in trades, according to recent data from Coinglass.
Despite Goldman Sachs increasing its U.S. recession forecast in 2025 to 25% from 15%, many analysts believe Monday’s jittery market might have been an overreaction, with the Federal Reserve likely to prop up the economy next month through interest rate cuts.
Moreover, crypto entrepreneur and BitMEX’s ex-CEO Arthur Hayes predicts that bitcoin might even spike all the way up to $1 million during the current market cycle.
“The bitcoin price in this cycle is going to go very, very high,” Hayes told DL News recently. “Hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe $1 million.”
“There’s so much debt that needs to be rolled over. We’re entering a period where the global monetary architecture is completely changing,” Hayes said. “We don’t know what it’s going to be, but the people who have made the most of the last 80 years are going to be very resistant to change.”
Hayes, however, pointed out that former president Donald Trump's bitcoin reserve proposal seemed improbable. "I find it almost impossible that that will get done, even if Trump is elected," he said . "You’re going to need to have a certain amount of people vote for this and if, you know, this is going to somehow negatively impact the U.S. Treasury or Fed or visibility to maintain a U.S. Treasury market."