Bitcoin regained some ground on Wednesday, rising to nearly $124,000 after a flush at $120,000 the day before. It was recently trading at $123,500, up 1.5% in the last 24 hours.
Altcoins followed the upward trend but did not return to the levels seen earlier in the week. Ethereum Ripple Solana , And each added between 1% and 3%. The CoinDesk 20 Index, which tracks a basket of major digital assets, rose 2%.
When it comes to crypto-related stocks, BTC miners tied to high-performance computing infrastructure once again led the gains. Cipher Mining (CIFR) and Bitfarms (BITF) jumped 11-12%, while CleanSpark (CLSK) and Hut 8 (HUT) added around 6%. The gains build on optimism that demand for artificial intelligence-driven computing power will benefit crypto miners.
Meanwhile, minutes from the Federal Reserve’s September meeting released Wednesday show most officials still expect interest rate cuts later this year. Some policymakers, however, argued that a reduction was not necessary in September, and the majority pointed to upside risks to inflation.
Gold Still Leads Devaluation Trade
Despite crypto’s rebound, gold continues to lead the “depreciation trade,” surpassing $4,000 and now up 50% this year.
The recovery is fueled by rising public deficits, the fragility of bond markets and expectations of a looser monetary policy. Japanese yields rose to a 17-year high this week, heightening global investor anxiety and sending capital toward gold as a safe haven, at the expense of risky assets like crypto.
Charlie Morris, chief investment officer at ByteTree, said gold’s rise was not driven by speculation.
“The market is hot, but it’s not hot,” he said. “If deficits, money printing, instability and rate cuts are driving up the price of gold, maybe these things need to change before we turn bearish.”
“Gold will reach an intermediate peak at some point, but it is best not to guess when that will happen and wait for evidence,” he added.
Bitcoin, he argued, could be the next asset to come under supply once gold’s shine fades, underscoring the largest cryptocurrency’s historic role as a second-wave beneficiary in macro-driven risk rotations.
“When gold starts to cool, there is a good chance that Bitcoin will rally,” Morris said.
Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, reiterated in his long-term outlook that bitcoin could eventually capture half the size of the gold market.
This scenario, he explained in an article on Tuesday
With the latest gold gains, this projection would imply a price of $644,000 per BTC, he said.
