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stable at $68,000 with inflation and nervousness about rates weighing on sentiment From Investing.com
Investing.com–The price rose marginally on Thursday, remaining stuck within a trading range as anticipation of key U.S. economic data, which is likely to influence the outlook for interest rates, kept traders on the sidelines.
The easing of concerns over a potential massive sell-off event by defunct exchange Mt Gox has offered Bitcoin some relief. But that was countered by the strength of the dollar, which rose to more than two-week highs as anticipation of further economic data kept traders largely biased towards the greenback.
Bitcoin rose 0.5% over the past 24 hours to $68,109.3 as of 08:42 ET (12:42 GMT). The world’s largest cryptocurrency has remained well within the $60,000 to $70,000 trading range established since mid-March.
Inflation and rate anxiety keep Bitcoin under pressure
Cryptocurrency markets have been rocked by a series of aggressive comments from the Federal Reserve over the past two weeks, as several policymakers signaled that the bank needed more convincing that inflation was falling.
This has put the focus on upcoming US economic data. A revised reading of first-quarter U.S. data is expected later Thursday, with any signs of economic resilience giving the Fed more room to keep rates higher for longer.
The data, the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation, will be watched more closely and will be released on Friday.
Traders were seen consistently discounting expectations that the Fed would cut rates in September, which strengthened the dollar and weighed on most risk-oriented assets, including cryptocurrencies.
High rates do not bode well for cryptocurrencies, as they diminish the attractiveness of speculative assets.
However, recent data showed that cryptocurrency investment products recorded a third consecutive week of inflows, with Ether recording increasing inflows on optimism over the US approval of an exchange-traded fund that directly tracks the second largest token in the world.
Crypto Price Today: Ether Slumps After ETF Rally, Altcoins Slump
It fell 1.6% to $3,750.05 on Thursday, retreating further from recent two-month highs, as euphoria over the immediate approval of a spot Ether ETF faded.
While the Securities and Exchange Commission approved requests from major stock exchanges to list any spot ETF products, the regulator had yet to engage with requests from potential issuers of the products, meaning listing was still a long way off.
Other altcoins have tumbled amid interest rate jitters. and fell by 0.7% and 1.7% respectively, while among meme tokens they lost around 3% each.
Singapore’s largest bank is an ETH whale, Nansen says
Interestingly, DBS, Singapore’s largest bank, is a significant holder of ether, according to on-chain analytics firm Nansen.
The firm said that a blockchain address, identified as belonging to DBS, holds 173,753 ETH, valued at $647 million at the current market price.
Nansen also noted that this address has generated over $200 million from its ether investments.
DBS is no stranger to the cryptocurrency market, as the bank provides a variety of services such as digital asset custody, a security token exchange, and a portfolio management app that covers both traditional and crypto assets.
A recent report from the bank highlighted the growing interest in the cryptocurrency market from retail investors, high-frequency traders and hedge funds.