The Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) price has closely mirrored the moves in risk assets for most of 2022. With the caveat that the price moves of the world's biggest crypto tend to be much larger. Both on the up and the down swings.
With the US Federal Reserve, and central banks the world over, ramping up interest rates, risk assets have come under tremendous pressure this calendar year.
From the beginning of trading in January through to 1 September, the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQ: .IXIC) – a good proxy for investor risk appetite – fell 25%. The Bitcoin price dropped a precipitous 48% in that same time.
See what we mean.
But something odd happened in September.
Bitcoin price begins to decouple from equities
As central banks continued their aggressive tightening policies and guidance, September proved to be another tough month for stocks.
Sticking with the NASDAQ, the tech-heavy index fell 10.5% over the month.
With that in mind, we might have expected a 20% fall in BTC.
But here's the thing.
The Bitcoin price kicked off September trading for US$20,105 and finished the month at US$18,694. (Give or take a few tens of dollars, depending on your time zone.)
That puts the world's biggest token down just 2% over the month. That's less than a fifth of the losses posted by the NASDAQ.
What's going on?
The Bitcoin price did see some noticeable swings in September, hitting highs of US$22,673 and lows of US$18,290, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
But the fact that it held up so much better than the broader tech sector indicates the token is finding significant support at these levels.
Part of that looks to be due to increasing influence from long-term crypto investors as speculator influence wanes.
According to Stephane Ouellette, chief executive of FRNT Financial Inc: "Followers of the ecosystem have been excited to see correlations with risk assets begin to break, meaning the 'fast-money' speculative crowd may be losing their influence on the space."
As for October?
The Bitcoin price is currently at US$19,543.
