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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.
At 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 cap was down 0.71% at 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.
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Vikram Subburaj, CEO of Giottus, commented, “Bitcoin is consolidating above $66,000 as markets await the interest rate update from the US FOMC. Analysts expect volatility around the announcement, but the $64,000 support level is likely to hold.” Meanwhile, Edul Patel, CEO of Mudrex, noted, “Bitcoin continues to trade below $67,000, under pressure from the US government’s selling of Silk Road-linked Bitcoin. A decisive move above $66,500 could send the price higher, but a 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 surge by as much as 8%. XRP has surged by 8% amid optimism over a Ripple-SEC deal, according to Avinash Shekhar, co-founder and CEO of Pi42. The volume of all stablecoins is now at $59.05 billion, which is 90.99% of the total 24-hour cryptocurrency market volume, according to data available on CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin’s dominance currently stands at 54.79%. BTC’s 24-hour volume has fallen 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.
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