The Federal Reserve meeting boosts investor confidence, and Bitcoin returns to $67,000
Bitcoin returned to $67,000 on Wednesday as investors began to focus on the Federal Reserve's policy decisions. After the Fed meeting, the price of Bitcoin rose by 8.23% to reach $67,838. The Fed indicated that it will continue to cut interest rates multiple times this year, which may improve investor sentiment and increase investments in risk assets such as Bitcoin. Bitcoin fell by 10% in the past week, but has still risen by 53% year-to-date. Stocks related to cryptocurrencies also performed well. Coinbase rose by 11%, while MicroStrategy rose by 9%. In addition, Ethereum rose by 1.2%, Polygon's Matic token rose by 1.5%, and Dogecoin rose by 7%
Zhitong Finance APP noticed that Bitcoin rose on Wednesday, reversing the morning's decline, as investors temporarily halted recent selling and began to consider the latest policy decisions from the Federal Reserve. As of the time of publication, the price of Bitcoin rose by 8.23% on Wednesday to reach $67,838. Earlier that day, Bitcoin had dropped to $60,793.60 at one point.
Cryptocurrencies strengthened after the two-day Federal Reserve policy meeting, as expected. The Fed kept interest rates steady at the meeting and indicated that there would be multiple rate cuts this year. Similar to tech stocks, Bitcoin sometimes benefits from low interest rates and improved market liquidity, which could improve investor sentiment and increase investments in growth assets.
Owen Lau, Managing Director at Oppenheimer, stated, "There is an inverse relationship between interest rates and Bitcoin prices. When the Fed raises rates in 2022, it withdraws liquidity from the market, affecting Bitcoin and tech stocks. When the Fed cuts rates, it provides liquidity to the market, which should be beneficial for risk assets like Bitcoin. Bitcoin encompasses almost everything - sometimes its trading resembles high-beta tech stocks."
After reaching a historical high of $73,797.68 last Thursday, Bitcoin fell by 10% in the past week. The cryptocurrency has still risen by 53% year-to-date.
Ethereum rose by 1.2% to $3,379.43 on Wednesday, after surpassing $4,000 last week. Polygon's Matic token rose by 1.5%, Solana remained stable, and Dogecoin rose by 7%.
Stocks related to cryptocurrencies performed well throughout the day. Coinbase rose by 11%. MicroStrategy, after a sharp drop of about 20% earlier this week, rose by 9%. In the crypto mining sector, Iris Energy and CleanSpark rose by 26% and 22% respectively. Marathon Digital rose by 16%, Riot Platforms rose by 11%, and JP Morgan upgraded its rating from neutral to overweight on Wednesday.
Following the conclusion of the Federal Reserve meeting, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 Index, and the Nasdaq Composite Index all closed at record highs.
After soaring by about 70% since the beginning of the year to its peak last Wednesday, traders began to take profits, leading to a recent softening of Bitcoin. Data from CryptoQuant shows that on March 12th, a large number of short-term Bitcoin holders sold Bitcoin for profit. According to CoinGlass data, this profit-taking led to a sharp increase in leveraged long positions being closed, a trend that continued into early this week.
Vijay Ayyar, Vice President of International Markets and Growth at the cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX, stated in an interview, "In the previous Bitcoin bull market, we saw 20%-30% pullbacks as a normal occurrence when things start to heat up. In the past week, we have indeed seen many signs that things are heating up significantly." Ayyar added that if Bitcoin falls below the $60,000 threshold, this cryptocurrency may weaken further to test the levels of $50,000 to $52,000, "which will be our bottom line for the continuation of this bull market."