Bitcoin price fell slightly on Friday, reversing some gains seen over the past two days as a slew of warnings from Federal Reserve officials largely cooled optimism over interest rate cuts this year.
The world’s biggest cryptocurrency remained squarely within a tight $60,000 to $70,000 trading range established over the past two months, seeing few catalysts to break out amid weak capital flows and tepid risk appetite.
Bitcoin price set for strong week amid some rate cut hopes
But even as it traded rangebound, Bitcoin was sitting on strong gains over the past seven days, especially since it had fallen as low as $60,000 last week.
The token was up around 8% from lows hit last Friday, encouraged chiefly by weakness in the dollar amid some signs of easing U.S. inflation.
Some soft consumer price index readings saw traders begin pricing in a greater chance that the Fed will cut interest rates in September- a scenario that bodes well for speculative assets such as Bitcoin and other cryptos.
But this enthusiasm somewhat dwindled on Friday, limiting Bitcoin’s gains after a string of Fed officials warned that the central bank needed more convincing that inflation was coming down.
Members of the Fed’s rate-setting committee said the central bank needed to see more than just some soft inflation readings for one month before locking in any plans for interest rate cuts.
Their comments sparked a sharp recovery in the dollar, and also stalled a rally across most risk-driven assets.
In addition to uncertainty over U.S. rates, sentiment towards crypto also remained constrained by fears of more regulatory action against the industry.
Crypto price today: altcoins retreat amid rate uncertainty
Among broader cryptocurrency markets, major altcoins retreated on Friday, and were mostly lagging Bitcoin over the past seven days as sentiment towards crypto remained muted.
Meme tokens largely tracked a rout in their stock counterparts, as a rally in meme stocks such as GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE:AMC) largely reversed course in recent sessions.
Dogecoin fell 3.6% on Friday, while Shiba Inu lost 2.8%.
| Cryptocurrency | Price | 24h Change | 7d Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | $65,473.3 | -0.23% | +7.82% |
| Ethereum | $1,814.2 | -0.55% | +5.03% |
| Solana | $51.23 | -0.42% | +2.87% |
| XRP | $0.561 | -0.14% | +1.54% |
| Dogecoin | $0.122 | -1.54% | -3.62% |
| Shiba Inu | $0.000012 | -3.04% | -7.89% |
Notes:
- Prices are in USD.
- Changes are calculated over the past 24 hours and 7 days.
- Data is accurate as of 11:18 CEST, May 17, 2024.
Sources:
- Investing.com: https://www.investing.com/crypto/
- CoinMarketCap: https://coinmarketcap.com/
