Bitcoin
Cryptocurrency Prices Surge as US Inflation Skids, SBF Arrest
Cryptocurrency prices surged while American bond yields retreated after the latest American inflation data. Bitcoin surged to $17,800 while Ethereum surged to $1,300. In total, the market cap of all cryptocurrencies surged to more than $878 billion.
US inflation data
As I wrote on Saturday, America’s inflation declined for the second straight month as the price of gasoline pulled back. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the headline consumer inflation dropped to 0.1% in November while core inflation plunged to 0.2%. Economists were expecting the number to come at 0.3% and 0.2%.
Inflation also plunged on a year-on-year basis. The data showed that the headline inflation dropped to 7.1% in November while core inflation dropped to 6.0%. These numbers show that the actions by the Fed are working.
There are more signs that inflation will continue falling in the coming months. For example, oil and gas prices have retreated in the past few months. Also, the key factors that pushed inflation higher a few months ago have reversed.
For example, global shipping costs have eased. Indeed, Maersk, the biggest sea shipping company in the world, fired its CEO after its revenue growth stalled.
Federal Reserve decision next
The next key catalyst for cryptocurrency prices will be the upcoming interest rate decision by the Federal Reserve. With inflation easing, economists expect that the Fed will sound a bit dovish in its upcoming meeting. Precisely, they expect that the Fed will hike rates by 0.50% after rising by 0.75% in the past 4 meetings.
According to the WSJ, the Fed will then shift to smaller 0.25% increases in the first quarter of 2023. It will stop interest rate hikes in summer and observe trends in inflation. The only uncertainty is on the terminal rate hike.
Sam Bankman-Fried
Cryptocurrency prices also rose as the US indicted Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder of FTX. The CEO was arrested on Monday at the Bahamas.
In its indictments, the US accuses SBF of conspiracy to defraud the US, wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering. As such, he faces more than a decade in prison.
As I wrote on Saturday, cryptocurrency prices could recover after the collapse of FTX since it was a ponzi scheme all along. It could also lead to more adoption of decentralized exchanges like GMX and Uniswap.
Bitcoin price dumped hard on Monday, briefly slipping below $41,000, erasing gains recorded in the previous week. The premier cryptocurrency seems to have exhausted its recent rally propelled by industry vulnerabilities. At the time of writing, the world’s largest cryptocurrency was trading slightly lower at $41,385. Bitcoin’s total market cap has dipped by 2% over the past day, while the total volume of BTC tokens traded over the same period climbed by 58%.
Fundamentals
Bitcoin price has been facing retracements and a rollercoaster over the past few days after recently rocketing to a 20-month peak. On-chain data has suggested that many investors used the opportunity to take some profits, leading to a decline in the asset’s price.
Bitcoin’s price slump is mirrored in the wider crypto market, with the global crypto market cap decreasing by 1.85% over the past 24 hours to $1.55 trillion. The total crypto market volume has increased by 32% over the same period. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index has plunged from a level of extreme greed to a greed level of 70, suggesting a decline in risk appetite.
Ethereum, the largest altcoin by market capitalization, is currently trading at $2,167, down almost 3% for the day. Meme coins have been hit hard by the market slump, with Dogecoin and Shiba Inu down by more than 4% over the last day.
Last week on Thursday, cryptocurrency experts took notice of…
Bitcoin price edged lower on Thursday despite optimism in wider markets on the back of the Fed’s interest rate decision. The flagship cryptocurrency has been consolidating above the critical level of $42,000 after briefly topping $44,000, its highest level in 20 months. Bitcoin was trading 0.71% lower at $42,569 at press time. BTC’s total market cap has increased by more than 3% over the last day to $832 billion, while the total volume of the asset traded over the same period jumped by 22%.
Economic Outlook
Bitcoin price has been trading sideways over the past few days, suggesting a pause in its recent rally towards $45,000. The premier cryptocurrency has decreased by 4% in the past week but remains 15.22% higher in the month to date. The digital asset has staged a significant recovery this year after a torrid 2022 in which a string of scandals, including the collapse of FTX, led to a market meltdown, undermining the credibility of the sector.
The crypto market has been buoyed by the Fed’s latest interest rate decision. The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday held its key interest rate unchanged for the third consecutive time, in line with market expectations. With the easing of the inflation rate, members of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted to keep the benchmark overnight borrowing rate in a targeted range between 5.25%-5.5%.
Additionally, the central bank indicated that three rate…
Bitcoin price has been hovering above the $43,000 psychological level over the past two days amid anticipation about the potential approval of a spot bitcoin ETF. The flagship cryptocurrency has climbed more than 16% in the past week and nearly 170% in the year to date. Bitcoin’s total market cap has increased by nearly 5% over the past 24 hours to $858.9 billion, while the total volume of the token traded rose by 43%. The Bitcoin price was trading at $43,914 at press time.
Fundamentals
Bitcoin price has posted significant gains over the past few days, climbing to its highest level since April 2022, before the crash of a stablecoin that started a litany of company failures, pummeling crypto prices. The world’s largest cryptocurrency briefly topped the crucial level of $44,000 on Wednesday amid rising momentum despite being massively overbought.
According to analysts, with no spot bitcoin ETF approvals yet and the halving event five to six months away, the market is riding on FOMO. Capital has been flowing in the Bitcoin market amid enthusiasm that the launches of spot ETF will bring in billions of dollars of new investment into the crypto sector.
Investors have already started providing capital as seed money for ETF products. Notably, a recent report by CoinDesk showed that the world’s largest fund manager, BlackRock, received $100,000 in capital from a seed investor for its spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund…
-
Blogs6 years agoBitcoin Cash (BCH) and Ripple (XRP) Headed to Expansion with Revolut
-
Blogs6 years agoAnother Bank Joins Ripple! The first ever bank in Oman to be a part of RippleNet
-
Blogs6 years agoStandard Chartered Plans on Extending the Use of Ripple (XRP) Network
-
Blogs6 years agoElectroneum (ETN) New Mining App Set For Mass Adoption
-
Don't Miss6 years agoRipple’s five new partnerships are mouthwatering
-
Blogs6 years agoCryptocurrency is paving new avenues for content creators to explore
-
Blogs6 years agoEthereum Classic (ETC) Is Aiming To Align With Ethereum (ETH)
-
Blogs6 years agoLitecoin (LTC) Becomes Compatible with Blocknet while Getting Listed on Gemini Exchange
