Bitcoin, Ether Rise. China Trade Hope, MicroStrategy, Other Things Driving Cryptos.

By Elsa OhlenBitcoin and Ether were leading gains among cryptocurrencies Friday, helped by several factors including hopes of easing trade tensions between the U.S. and China.Bitcoin was up 0.7% to $96,933 over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. It rose on Thursday along with U.S. stocks following strong earnings from tech giants Meta and Microsoft.Altcoins were mixed with Ether up 0.8% while XRP, Solana and Cardano edged down less than 1% each.Futures tracking the benchmark S&P 500 were up 0.4%.Even if cryptos, and Bitcoin in particular, have shown signs of decoupling with the stock market in recent weeks, they are still very much affected by macroeconomic events such as interest rates and trade policy.The price of Bitcoin has likely been boosted by signals that China is open to trade talks with the Trump administration.Beijing said Friday that it was considering accepting a U.S. offer begin talks on tariffs — if Washington shows it's willing to scrap the 145% import tax currently imposed on Chinese goods.MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, also said it would continue to increase its stash of the digital coin as it reported quarterly earnings that missed expectations late Thursday. The company, seen as a leveraged bet on Bitcoin, announced a new $21 billion stock offering to add coins to the 553,555 already amassed.The company posted a loss of $16.49 a share in the first quarter, far off analysts' expectations for a loss of 11 cents a share. It likely didn't come as a surprise to investors though, and didn't move shares much. MicroStrategy stock climbed 1.6% to $387.52 in premarket trading.Friday's U.S. April jobs report could have an impact on crypto prices if it nudges the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, which tends to have a positive effect on riskier assets such as cryptos.Crypto price typically drop when economic uncertainty or instability is heightened, which has been the case in the past few months amid the Trump administration's calls for steep tariffs. However, steady inflows to Bitcoin ETFs have helped limit the negative effect on price.Write to Elsa Ohlen at [email protected] content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.