Bitcoin, Kospi and Nasdaq futures rally as China GDP beats estimates
Bitcoin traded around $82,500 on Monday, up 0.7% since midnight UTC and 1.3% over 24 hours, as investors returned to riskier assets following stronger-than-expected Chinese economic data and a fall in oil prices.
The gains were not confined to crypto. Nasdaq futures rose more than 1%, Japan's Nikkei added 1.8% and South Korea's Kospi advanced 0.6%, recovering part of last week's losses, which were led by AI-related shares. Chinese stocks were up 0.3%. Gold was little changed near $4,180 and the Dollar Index held near Friday's lows, below 102.
China's National Bureau of Statistics reported that gross domestic product grew 4.5% year on year in the third quarter, faster than the 4.3% pace in the second quarter. Retail sales of consumer goods rose 1.1%, more than double the 0.5% increase expected and up from 0.4% the previous month. China is the world's second-largest economy and a major importer of industrial commodities, so stronger data there tends to encourage risk-taking across markets.
Oil prices fell on both sides of the Atlantic, reversing some of last week's gains. Reuters attributed the decline to expectations that President Donald Trump's Russia waiver would boost supply, though geopolitical risks in the Middle East persist. A sustained decline in crude could ease inflation fears and clear the way for the Federal Reserve to cut rates. The central bank is expected to hold its benchmark rate in the 4.75% to 5% range this month, having raised it by 25 basis points last month.
The source material also cited commentary that diversified real-world-asset stablecoins are sustaining 5-7% yields from real credit as crypto funding compresses to around 4%, with the GENIUS framework pushing yield off-chain and the addressable market growing to $4 billion over three years. Those figures were reported as claims and could not be independently verified.
