Bitcoin (BTC-USD) made a notable upward movement on Thursday, rising to around $92,000, buoyed by strong earnings results from Nvidia (NVDA). This boost has not only enhanced investor sentiment but also contributed to a spike in crypto-mining stocks. The positive momentum follows a tumultuous week characterized by unprecedented outflows from bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and a brief drop below the significant $90,000 mark.
Nvidia’s impressive earnings report released on Wednesday has alleviated some concerns regarding a potential slowdown in the artificial intelligence market. The tech giant reported a remarkable $57.01 billion in revenue for the third quarter, reflecting a 62% increase from the previous year, along with a promising outlook for the fourth quarter. CEO Jensen Huang remarked on the overwhelming demand for the company’s AI chips, highlighting that “Blackwell sales are off the charts” while cloud GPUs are currently sold out, indicating a surge in compute needs for AI training and inference tasks.
This optimism resonated throughout the market, particularly benefiting bitcoin-mining companies that are heavily reliant on high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs). Notable gains in pre-market trading included Cipher Mining (CIFR), which rose by 11%, IREN (IREN) with an 8% increase, and Hut 8 (HUT) climbing by 6%.
The resurgence in Bitcoin’s price followed a significant midweek retreat that was primarily driven by large-scale ETF redemptions. Farside data revealed that BlackRock’s (BLK) IBIT, the world’s largest spot bitcoin ETF, experienced $523 million in outflows on Wednesday, marking the highest single-day withdrawal since its inception in January 2024. This sell-off saw Bitcoin plunge to a local low of approximately $88,400, erasing its gains for the year to date.
The price fluctuations also occur against a backdrop of escalating political and monetary uncertainty in the United States. Former President Donald Trump has intensified his criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, expressing frustration over the Fed’s reluctance to implement more rapid interest rate cuts. Trump stated, “I’ll be honest, I’d love to fire his ass.”
Furthermore, reports indicate that Trump aims to remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook and replace her with his economic advisor, Stephen Miran, on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). Should this maneuver succeed, it could potentially create a “super-majority” within the Committee favoring aggressive interest rate cuts.
Analysts at Bitfinex cautioned that if Trump manages to reshape the Federal Reserve by 2026, the central bank’s independence might be compromised. They warned that such changes could lead to a reassessment of the dollar’s reserve currency status as well as long-term borrowing costs in the market.
“From historical precedent to current tactics, Trump’s strategy clearly targets direct intervention in the rate-path decision process,” Bitfinex analysts noted in a recent report.
