News
Bitcoin trades near $66,000 ahead of US Fed meeting outcome
Ahead of tonight’s US Fed meeting, where Jerome Powell is expected to indicate the timing and number of potential rate cuts, cryptocurrency Markets fell on Wednesday, with Bitcoin and Ethereum leading the decline. As of 1:48 pm IST, Bitcoin (BTC) was down 1.3% at $66,088, while Ethereum was down nearly 1.11% at $3,313. Meanwhile, the global cryptocurrency market capitalization fell 0.71% to around $2.39 trillion in the past 24 hours.
Central banks are the focal point for investors on a busy Wednesday, with the Federal Reserve’s decision due later in the day. While markets expect the U.S. central bank to hold current rates, a 25 basis point cut in September is fully priced in, with around 68 basis points of easing expected for the year.
Vikram Subburaj, CEO of Giottus, commented: “Bitcoin is consolidating above $66,000 as markets await interest rate updates from the US FOMC. Analysts expect volatility around the announcement, but the $64,000 support level is likely to hold.”
Meanwhile, Mudrex CEO Edul Patel noted, “Bitcoin continues to trade below $67,000, under pressure from the US government’s sale of Silk Road-related Bitcoin. A strong move above $66,500 could send the price higher, but failure to break this resistance could lead to further declines. Immediate support is near $66,000.”
Other popular altcoins and meme coins, such as DogecoinCardano, Tron, Avalanche, Shiba Inu, Polkadot and Chainlink dropped by up to 4%, while BNB, SolanaXRP and Toncoin are up as much as 8%. XRP has seen an 8% increase amid optimism over a Ripple-SEC deal, according to Avinash Shekhar, co-founder and CEO of Pi42.
The volume of all stablecoins is now $59.05 billion, which is 90.99% of the total 24-hour cryptocurrency market volume, according to data available on CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin’s dominance is currently 54.79%. BTC’s volume in the last 24 hours has dropped by 27% to $28.7 billion.
“Bitcoin’s immediate resistance is at $66,852 and support at $65,000. The RSI is indicating oversold conditions and points to possible further declines if the price breaks below $65,900,” said Sathvik Vishwanath, co-founder and CEO of Unocoin.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, opinions and views provided by experts are personal. They do not represent the views of the Economic Times)
(You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp Channel)