Risk appetite spread further into the cryptocurrency market on Friday as Bitcoin held above $80,000 and stocks hit new highs, boosting investment in altcoins and blockchain infrastructure.
Solana (SOL), Chainlink , and is up about 5%, while Near Protocol (NEAR) and Uniswap (UNI) are up about 7%. The Internet Computer Protocol’s ICP rose nearly 12%, leading the gains among major majors.
The move coincided with another strong session for the stock market. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 2.2% to hit a record high, while the S&P 500 rose 0.85% to also hit a record high.
Friday’s U.S. labor market data added constructive context. The economy added 115,000 jobs in April, well above expectations of 62,000, while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.3%.
Cryptocurrency-related stocks also rebounded, led by Coinbase (COIN). Thursday’s earnings report showed the cryptocurrency exchange’s shares recovered 10% from intraday lows with a quarterly loss of $398 million amid weak trading activity. Earlier on Friday, the company’s trading platform also experienced a hours-long outage due to an AWS outage, but it was later fully resolved.
Despite the weak quarter, several Wall Street analysts remain focused on long-term positives related to stablecoins and cryptocurrency regulation.
That assertion gained support after SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said on Friday that the agency was weighing new rules around on-chain trading systems, crypto custody infrastructure and blockchain-based settlement rails as finance increasingly merges with artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technology.
Atkins also reiterated his support for Congress’ efforts to advance cryptocurrency market structure legislation, commenting that investors believe this supports tokenization and blockchain-based financial infrastructure.
The theme drove related stocks higher. Bullish (BLSH), the parent company of CoinDesk, announced this week that it will further promote tokenization, and its stock price rose 6%. Digital asset infrastructure company BitGo (BTGO) surged 10%, while Cantor Equity Partners II (CEPT), which plans to merge with BlackRock-backed tokenization firm Securitize, rose 4.3%.
