Bitcoin Maintains Steady Growth as Investors Await US Central Bank’s Next Move
Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, held steady above $24,500 as investors awaited the U.S. central bank’s next move. The cryptocurrency was trading at $24,791, up 1.4% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. BTC has remained range-bound between $24,000 and $25,000 since Tuesday afternoon when U.S. inflation data took a slight turn for the better. BTC is up 19% over the week amid renewed market optimism about the U.S. banking sector and the Federal Reserve potentially suspending its current regime of interest rate hikes.
Swiss National Bank Lends Troubled Investment Bank Credit Suisse About $50 Billion
Investors’ hopes rose after the Swiss National Bank agreed to lend troubled investment bank Credit Suisse about $50 billion, which seems to have headed off a European banking crisis. The move is being seen as a precursor of the Fed raising interest rates by 25 bps. “Anything overly dovish would strike fear in markets that the Fed knows something more, while pausing would confuse the message on inflation,” said Singapore-based crypto options trading firm QCP Capital in a note. “Central banks will be keeping up their fight against inflation while working separately on ring-fencing troubled financial institutions.”
CME FedWatch Tool Forecasts 80.5% Chance of a 25 Basis Point Rate Hike
On Wednesday, the CME FedWatch Tool, a predictor of interest rate decisions, forecast a 45% chance of a zero basis point rate hike. It’s now predicting an 80.5% chance of a 25 basis point (bps) increase. Both numbers contrast sharply from last week when the CME showed a 68% chance of a 50 bps rate boost. The resilience of BTC shows that it is a hedge against monetary irresponsibility, wrote QCP Capital in a Telegram broadcast note. The note also highlighted that the move by the European Central Bank to increase its interest rate by 50 bps on Thursday is a sign of monetary tightening amid rising inflation on the continent.
U.S. Equity Markets Turn Green as Crypto Market Index Increases
U.S. equity markets also turned green as markets continued to digest U.S. regulators’ backstop for depositors at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. The S&P 500, Wall Street’s benchmark equity index, recently rose by 1.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) were up 1.8% and 0.7%, respectively. Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, was recently hovering around $1,690, up 2% from Wednesday at the same time. BNB, the native token of the Binance-initiated blockchain network BNB Chain and the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, jumped 7% to trade at $328 from roughly $300 a day ago. Indexing protocol The Graph’s GRT token surged 13%.
Source: CoinDesk
