Bitcoin and Ether prices drop ahead of Fed interest rate decision

Also, the crypto market witnessed a significant downturn attributed to highly anticipated Bitcoin and Ether ETFs in Hong Kong that didn't impress traders, with trading volume barely exceeding $10 million.

Meanwhile, Ethereum, the second largest crypto token, also plunged over 5.7% to $2,986 at 11:35 am IST. Other major crypto tokens such as BNB (-5%), Solana (-7.6%), XRP (-2.1%), Toncoin (-5.3%), Dogecoin (-8%), Shiba Inu (-8.4%), and Avalanche (-6.9%) also declined.

Rajagopal Menon, Vice President at WazirX, said, "Before tomorrow's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, Bitcoin (BTC) dropped to $59,500, with investors anticipating a hawkish Federal Reserve (Fed) stance. It is currently at around $60,000, reflecting a 6% decline in the past 24 hours amid renewed economic uncertainties."

Shivam Thakral, CEO of BuyUcoin, said, "Bitcoin is down over 16% through April and once again retesting the crucial support zone of $58k - $60k. This zone holds significant importance for the short-term prospects of altcoins. However, if it is lost, altcoins could potentially suffer further downside. The highly anticipated Bitcoin and Ether ETFs in Hong Kong didn't impress traders."

The global market cap fell by 4.65% to around $2.22 trillion in the last 24 hours.

The volume of all stablecoins is now $84.91 billion, which is 93.97% of the total crypto market 24-hour volume, as per data available on CoinMarketCap.

In the last 24 hours, the market cap of Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, fell to $1.178 trillion. Bitcoin's dominance is currently 53.34%, according to CoinMarketCap. BTC volume in the last 24 hours rose 43.9% to $38.05 billion.

"Bitcoin's hourly MACD indicates a strengthening bearish trend, while the hourly RSI for BTC/USD has dipped below the 50 level. Major support levels stand at $59,500 and $59,100, with significant resistance levels at $60,400, $61,200, and $62,000," said Rajagopal.

"Ethereum's present stance reflects cautious optimism but underscores risks. Holding at $3,000 is pivotal; a breach might trigger a correction towards $2,700, affecting market sentiment. Ethereum maintains its trajectory with resistance at $3,300," he said.

Meanwhile, CoinSwitch Markets Desk, said, "With the broader crypto market awaiting an upside break, BTC broke its $60k support on the downside. BTC has reached its lowest price point in close to two months. While this move could be attributed to a pending technical correction, another catalyst of the same was the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance’s former CEO getting his sentence announced yesterday. CZ was given a sentence to serve jail time for 4 months. Many are hailing it as a positive development given that Binance can now officially be free from the US regulators, barring the fine that they had paid. BNB token would be one of the cryptos that investors will keep a look out for, in the coming days or weeks."

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

Source: Forex-Markets-Economic Times