Bitcoin Recovers to Over $19K, Nomura Warns of US, UK Recession

Bitcoin extended its recovery to over $19,000 during European trading hours Monday after a weekend that saw major cryptocurrencies put up only moderate gains.

Ether (ETH) rose 5% in the past 24 hours to trade above $1,100. Solana’s SOL and Cardano’s ADA each added about 4%, while XRP and BNB gained over 3.5%. Total crypto market capitalization increased 2.3%, CoinGecko data showed.

Among smaller tokens, Avalanche’s AVAX and Tron’s TRX gained over 8%, while gains among other cryptocurrencies ranged from 2% to 5%. Thorchain’s RUNE added as much as 15%, continuing a run since last month’s mainnet launch.

Equity traders remain concerned about the slowing pace of growth, which could dent chances of longer recovery. Japanese financial services giant Nomura said in a Monday note that major economies could enter recession “in the next 12 months” amid tightening monetary policies and higher costs.

“Increasing signs that the world economy is entering a synchronized growth slowdown, meaning countries can no longer rely on a rebound in exports for growth, have also prompted us to forecast multiple recessions,” Nomura analysts wrote.

The analysts said they expect Europe, the U.K., Japan, South Korea, Australia, U.S. and Canada to fall into recession. They said the U.S. could experience a “shallow but long” recession of five quarters and Europe could take a much deeper hit because of Russia's attack on Ukraine.

Last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated the U.S. central bank's commitment to increasing interest rates to curtail inflation, as reported. Powell said he was more concerned about the challenge posed by inflation than about the possibility of higher interest rates pushing the U.S. economy into a recession.

The Fed’s outlook and declining equity markets have weighed on crypto prices this year, alongside systemic risks from within the market. Bitcoin has lost 57% since the start of the year, and the S&P500 has lost nearly 20% during the same period.

“Overall caution is still the name of the game,” Susannah Streeter, a markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, told CoinDesk in an email. “Investors nurse wounds from a bruising first half of the year.”