Carbon credit protocols have had a difficult time in recent months but have been working to improve the way they operate; bitcoin outperformed other major cryptocurrencies in Thursday trading.

Most major cryptocurrencies tumbled even as stock prices rose in Thursday trading.

Bitcoin was recently trading at about $29,100, roughly flat over the previous 24 hours after the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization dropped well below $29,000 earlier in the day. Ether was off more than 8% over the same period and changing hands below $1,800. The second largest crypto by market cap has hovered above $1,900 for much of the past three weeks.

Other altcoins spent most of their Thursday day solidly in the red with SOL, CRO and APE each off at least 11% at certain points as investors continued their recent preference for BTC, considered the least risky of digital assets, amid ongoing concerns about high inflation and an economic downturn. Bitcoin’s market cap has recently spiked relative to other cryptocurrencies.

“It’s not surprise to me that people are pulling back from crypto,” JJ Kinahan, vice president and chief market strategist for trading platform Tastytrade, told CoinDesk TV’s First Mover program. “Bitcoin, probably the one [cryptocurrency] being the most established name among retail investors is the one that people trust to hold up.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average of blue-chip stocks has had at least some reason to crow lately, rising for a fifth consecutive day. Other indices also soared as three major retail chains, Macy’s, Dollar General and Dollar Tree, reported favorable earnings, suggesting at least temporarily that consumers weren’t done shopping. Retail sales helped fuel the U.S. economic rebound that began slowing in recent months.

The tech-focused Nasdaq increased a strong 2.6% with Tesla (TSLA) and Amazon (AMZN) among the winners, and the S&P 500, climbed nearly 2% just two days after hitting bear market territory, a designation reached when an equities index plunges 20% from its most recent high.

Still, other recent news offered stark reminders of the global economy’s shaky balance. In China, President Xi Jinping said that the country’s economy was doing worse in some ways than during the earlier stages of the COVID pandemic. A government lockdown has slowed China’s growth and boosted unemployment rates. And investment giant Sequoia Capital offered a downbeat assessment of economic conditions and encouraged the early stage companies it has financed to focus on cutting costs and increasing profitability.

Crypto investors are likely to remain spooked by economic conditions and geopolitical turmoil, a number of analysts say. The Fear and Greed index rose slightly by early Thursday and remains in “extreme fear” territory, while the total market capitalization of the crypto market has declined.

“That the S&P is trying to break 4,000, while bitcoin’s trying to break $30,000 are both very important points, very correlated as to the confidence in the market and in bitcoin and assets overall,” Tastytrade’s Kinahan said.

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