Bitcoin advances in positive start to March, while crypto-exposed stocks slide

Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) and other cryptocurrencies kicked off the first day of March on a solid note, though crypto-related equities as well as the broader stock market ended Wednesday's session lower, in the wake of improved U.S. manufacturing data and hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials. After booking a modest slump of 2.5% for February, bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) pared a portion of those losses in mid-afternoon trading, edging higher by 1.1% to $23.40K as of 4:03 p.m. ET. Ethereum ( ETH-USD ) also rose 2.2% to $1.64K after logging a 2.3% slide in the prior month. Both tokens are up quite comfortably since the start of 2023, with bitcoin 40.1% higher and ether ( ETH-USD ) +35.3%. Market participants, meantime, largely retreating from stocks as yet another round of upbeat economic data prompted speculation of higher-for-longer interest rates set by the Federal Reserve. Many crypto-exposed stocks, despite their strong correlation with bitcoin ( BTC-USD ), were trading in the red as well, including Marathon Digital ( MARA ) -8.7% , CleanSpark ( CLSK ) -6% , MicroStrategy ( MSTR ) -1.4% and Riot Platforms ( RIOT ) -1.8% . In contrast to recent years, bitcoin's ( BTC-USD ) relationship to the stock market has weakened, as a number of sessions this year have featured the token bucking a rally in equities and vice versa. Take a look at the latest outlooks for the crypto market .