Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) was up more than 2% on Friday to trade above the crucial $20,000 mark, putting it on pace for gains during the week after falling towards this key level in late August.
Ether (
ETH-USD
), however, continues to lead crypto rallies, as expectations for its mid-September Merge transition have jumpstarted ether as the most popular risk-on trade in the crypto market this quarter. Ether was up about 6% to trade near $1,620 on Friday.
The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies was up about 4% following the report, trading above $1 trillion on Friday morning for the first time in two weeks, according to Coinmarketcap .
Ether’s value relative to bitcoin (
ETH-BTC
) — an indicator analysts use to assess risk-taking within the crypto sector — was up 3% on Friday and nearing levels not seen since the beginning of this year.
“Investors seem bullish on the long-term future of Ethereum, as evidenced by the options markets, but in the short term remain anxious at the possibility of a self-inflicted crisis,” Conor Ryder a research analyst for crypto firm Kaiko, explained in a Thursday note.
Meanwhile, funding rates, which indicate whether the long or short side of the trade is more popular, show that investor expectations turned sharply negative at the end of August.
In the options market, traders appear more hesitant to place short positions following the Merge with the majority of contract expirations representing long positions.
Markets were broadly higher on Friday after the August jobs report showed the U.S. labor market grew at a slower pace last month, potentially taking the pressure off the Federal Reserve to continue with aggressive interest rate hikes later this month.
“The report isn’t enough in itself to overly excite traders, not even the crypto crowd I would have thought, but it could reinforce that support which is important,” Craig Erlam, a senior market analyst for Oanda said following the jobs report. “A break of $20,000 could be painful for bitcoin and today’s data may enable it to hold above here for a while longer yet.”
Crypto-stocks moving
Shares of crypto-related companies MicroStrategy ( MSTR ) and Coinbbase ( COIN ) were little-changed on Friday following this report.
After reporting second quarter earnings showing the company has more than $6 billion in cash to survive a prolonged “crypto winter,” shares of Coinbase Global rallied in the second week of August but have since retreated. Near midday on Friday, shares were down 0.4% to trade near $65.20.
MicroStrategy, which became embroiled in a lawsuit that alleged its founder and former CEO Michael Saylor owes more than $25 million in taxes to the District of Columbia earlier this week, saw shares up about 0.2% following Friday’s data.
MicroStrategy shares have lost more than 18% over the past month.
Smaller Layer-1 tokens such as PolkaDot (8%) and Avalanche (5%) were also higher on Friday amid a risk-on day for markets.
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