Share this article
COVID-19 Stimulus Checks Fueled 'Modest' Jump in Bitcoin Price Last Year: Cleveland Fed
Policymakers should not be concerned, the researchers wrote: Only 0.02% of coronavirus-relief checks ended up in bitcoin.
By Danny Nelson
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 1:26 p.m. Published Jul 16, 2021, 4:22 p.m.
The first round of stimulus checks in the U.S. in April 2020 fueled a “significant but modest” bump in bitcoin trading volume and price, according to a study from the Federal Reserve’s Cleveland branch that was posted Friday.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Central bank researchers estimated the government’s $1,200 stimulus checks sent to Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic fueled a 3.8% jump in trading volume and a 0.7% rise in price. Overall, they estimated just 0.02% of the stimulus money ended up in bitcoin.
Framed against bitcoin’s wild volatility, these figures don’t add up to much. Further noting a 0.07% “permanent price increase,” the researchers said their findings are “modest compared to the 4.6% standard deviation” in bitcoin’s daily price swings. Nevertheless, the researchers said the jumps were “statistically significant.”
Read more: US Bitcoin Exchanges See No Major Uptick in Stimulus-Related Buying
The findings add some hard data to lockdown-era whispers of a government-fueled surge in $1,200 bitcoin buys. Those purchases were happening, the researchers found, but almost exclusively among young, single investors with moderate incomes.
“This is consistent with the picture of a typical Bitcoin investor painted by surveys,” the researchers noted. Groups with a more acute need for stimulus payments, like families and the unemployed, did not ape in, they found.
Japan and South Korea also saw measurable bumps in their bitcoin markets after their governments’ respective stimulus rounds, according to the researchers.
Policymakers “should not be concerned” that crypto markets will gobble up future stimulus payments, the researchers said.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Coinbase Sees Crypto Recovery Ahead as Liquidity Improves and Fed Rate Cut Odds Climb
The crypto exchange also took note of a so-called AI bubble that continues to go strong and a weaker U.S. dollar.
What to know:
- Coinbase Institutional is seeing a potential December recovery in crypto, citing improving liquidity and a shift in macroeconomic conditions that could favor risk assets like bitcoin.
- The firm's optimism is driven by rising odds of Federal Reserve rate cuts, with markets pricing in a 93% chance easing next week, and improving liquidity conditions.
- Several recent institutional developments, including Vanguard's crypto ETF policy reversal and Bank of America's greenlighting of crypto allocations, have contributed to bitcoin's rebound from recent lows.
Top Stories
