Live updates: Ether leads crypto higher. China's gold imports surge

The ether-bitcoin ratio has risen to 0.03, the highest since late April, according to data source TradingView.

The pair is hovering above its 200-day simple moving average for the first time since January and has gained over 20% since the sell-off ran out of steam on June 6.

This sustained ether outperformance could be a sign of an impending altcoin boom. However, as of this writing, BTC remains the most dominant token, accounting for 59% of the total crypto market.

China, the world’s second-largest economy, continues to accumulate gold even as the U.S. and other advanced economies move to integrate crypto and blockchain into finance.

China’s purchases of gold increased for the third straight month in June, tallying approximately 173 tonnes, according to the latest customs data. June’s imports were the highest since March 2024, according to the latest customs data.

This isn’t just institutional demand. Retail investors are also steadily accumulating gold through small, incremental purchases via bank-led savings plans.

China has a strict ban on trading and mining of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins to prevent capital flight and financial fraud.

Bitcoin is likely to stay range-bound, said Jeff Ko, chief analyst at CoinEx, and he points to three reasons the backdrop has calmed.

Oil has retreated from last week's highs after another pause in U.S.-Iran hostilities. The 10-year Treasury yield, approaching 4.7%, is doing part of the Fed's tightening work on its own. And the Fed may want to keep its options open ahead of this week's PCE inflation and second-quarter GDP data.

The bigger swing factor is corporate. Apple, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon all report this week, and Ko said their free cash flow and AI-spending guidance could move Treasury yields and the Nasdaq, indirectly shaping the liquidity that flows into crypto.

Ko added that the composition of ETF flows will matter as much as the headline numbers.