Bitcoin’s price experienced a rise on Friday, partially recovering from recent losses, although its upward momentum was hindered by ongoing uncertainty surrounding U.S. interest rates.

Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin saw a 0.8% increase, reaching $66,120.5 by 08:48 ET (12:48 GMT). Earlier in the week, the cryptocurrency had dipped as low as $64,000 amid dampened risk appetite in broader financial markets.

Various geopolitical tensions, including an earthquake in Taiwan and escalating issues in the Middle East, coupled with concerns about potential interest rate hikes in the United States, prompted traders to favor safe-haven assets like the U.S. dollar and gold.

The dollar strengthened on Friday, while gold prices remained close to record highs reached earlier in the week.

Furthermore, a series of hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials contributed to the cautious sentiment, as several members of the central bank indicated that persistently high inflation would delay any plans for interest rate cuts.

Bitcoin’s weekly performance was also impacted, with the cryptocurrency down approximately 3% over the past five days. Despite reaching record highs above $73,000 in March, Bitcoin has struggled to maintain momentum, coinciding with weakness in other risk-driven assets and a slowdown in capital flows into recently approved Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

While the approval of ETFs was a significant catalyst for Bitcoin’s earlier gains, recent trends suggest a decrease in enthusiasm for these products.

Attention also turned to the release of nonfarm payrolls data, which exceeded economists’ expectations. The addition of 303,000 jobs in March surpassed projections of 200,000, while the unemployment rate fell to 3.8%, better than the anticipated 3.9%.

Nonfarm payroll figures are closely monitored by the markets as they can influence U.S. interest rate expectations. Higher interest rates, which seem increasingly likely given the strong employment data, could negatively impact Bitcoin, which tends to thrive in low-rate environments.

In addition to Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies experienced mixed performance, with Ethereum falling 2.6% and XRP dropping 0.7%. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s ongoing evaluation of spot ETFs for Ethereum, as well as its investigation into XRP’s classification, contributed to the respective tokens’ performance.

Despite the rise in derivatives trading volume to a record $6.18 trillion in March, the market share of derivatives declined for the sixth consecutive month, reaching 67.8%, the lowest since December 2022. This shift reflects increased activity in the spot market, which saw a 108% surge in trading volume to $2.94 trillion, the highest since May 2021. Overall, spot and derivatives trading combined reached a record $9.12 trillion.