Bitcoin Stalls, XRP Falls. This Can Reignite the Crypto Rally.
By Elsa OhlenBitcoin took a breather early Tuesday after slow but steady gains for the past few days as the market awaits key economic data releases this week.The world's largest cryptocurrency was trading largely flat over the past 24 hours at $94,964, according to CoinDesk data. The price of Bitcoin is now slightly higher than it was to start the year.Elsewhere in the sector, Ether climbed 1.2% to $1,828 and Solana dropped 1.8% to $148.XRP, the crypto used to facilitate transactions on Ripple's payment platform and the native token of the XRP Ledger, dropped 1.8% to $2.29 after big gains Monday. Futures tracking the S&P 500 gained 0.2%.Bitcoin's sideways movement and altcoins lackluster performance Monday comes as ahead of key economic data , including first-quarter GDP and the personal consumption expenditure (PCE) price index on Wednesday, and the April jobs report Friday."If the figures come in better than expected, it could demonstrate to markets that the economy is more resilient to the challenges of tariffs and prevailing uncertainty," said XS.com analyst Samer Hasn. "This, in turn, may fuel risk appetite in financial markets — something that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies depend on to sustain gains."Cryptos typically respond to macroeconomic shifts, and prices tend to drop when economic uncertainty or instability is heightened, and vice versa. In the past few months, the Trump administration's calls for steep tariffs on several trading partners has shaken equity and crypto markets.Bitcoin fared better than stocks for much of the market turmoil, which many crypto analysts attribute to its transnational nature. It was also helped by steady inflows to Bitcoin ETFs.In the past week, crypto funds recorded inflows of $3.3 billion, the largest number so far this year, according to J.P. Morgan.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.