Bitcoin remains in the bear zone due to the ongoing macroeconomic environment and generally tighter monetary policy from the U.S. Federal Reserve. But the top cryptocurrency had risen three consecutive days amid encouraging jobs and productivity data. And hopes are that the U.S. central bank will scale back its hawkish monetary policy.
Jerome Powell, the U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman, on Wednesday suggested that the bank would raise interest rates 50 basis points, down from its recent 75 bps regimen. However, this didn’t have much of an impact on the crypto market. In fact, the crypto industry is more concerned about contagion linked to crypto exchange FTX’s collapse.
Edward Moya, the senior market analyst for Oanda, said cryptos are struggling. He outlined that concerns are about Tether loans being the next big risk for the crypto-verse. Moya believes stablecoins are an important part of the crypto world and if one of the major ones breaks, that will send Bitcoin and Ethereum to new lows.
Bitcoin was recently held at $16,939, as per data from CoinMarketCap. It has been down by 1.18% in the last 24 hours. Ethereum is also slightly down by 0.93% and trading at $1,273. The altcoins are mainly in the red. Dogecoin is down nearly 5%, Ripple’s XRP is down 3.53%, and Solana’s 3.65%.
Experts say regulatory uncertainty continues to limit BTC’s price ascension. This is especially after U.S. lawmaker Elizabeth Warren reinforced the importance of blocking direct exposure of the insured financial institutions and the highly speculative activity, highly leveraged, and vulnerable crypto space.
