U.S. jobs report missed expectations, while the unemployment rate rose to 3.9%.
Crypto markets rose on Friday morning following the release of the US government’s jobs report for April.
Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, was trading around $61,800 — a 4.6% rise over 24 hours, at 1:30pm EST. Ether (ETH) was trading at over $3,000, and Dogecoin (DOGE) climbed by 4%. Solana and Avalanche also saw increases of 3%, according to CoinGecko.
This surge in the crypto market on Friday can be attributed to several factors, one of which is the Federal Reserve’s less aggressive stance on monetary policy and the news of PayPal’s integration with MoonPay.
Justin Berett, a crypto analyst, told The Defiant that when a big player in the finance sector like PayPal embraces crypto services, it lends credibility to the crypto market.
“This legitimacy can attract traditional investors and the general public, who might have previously been skeptical about cryptocurrencies, to recognize and potentially engage with this asset class,” he said.
Jobs Report
According to the government’s Nonfarm Payrolls report released Friday morning, the U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in April. This figure falls short of economist forecasts for 243,000 jobs and March’s 315,000.
The unemployment rate for April was 3.9%, slightly higher than forecasts for 3.8% and March’s 3.8%.
Weaker than expected economic data fuels speculation the Fed will ease its monetary policy, which usually leads to increased risk appetite.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average led the surge with a 1.5% gain while the S&P 500 also surged by 1.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite rallied by 1.8%.
Company Earnings
Meanwhile, Coinbase Global, a major cryptocurrency exchange, reported making profits for the second consecutive quarter thanks to a rise in crypto trading during the first three months of 2024. Despite this robust financial performance, pre-market trading on Friday saw almost a 4% decrease in the company’s stock value.
In other news, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey announced that his financial company Block, Inc. plans to invest 10% of its Bitcoin product profits into purchasing Bitcoin every month.
“Going forward, each month we will be investing 10% of our gross profit from Bitcoin products into Bitcoin purchases,” Dorsey stated in a shareholder letter, which also reported better-than-expected results for the first quarter.
Block’s first-quarter results, saw 60% increase in Bitcoin gross profit to $80.1 million from customer sales through its Cash App business. Following this news, Block’s stock rose by 6.19% after hours trading on Friday.
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