Bitcoin Loses $30K as US Federal Reserve Hikes Interest Rates by Another 25BPS: This Week’s Crypto Recap

Although most prices in the cryptocurrency market have shown high levels of stagnation in the past week, there were still several notable developments on different fronts.

Starting with US regulations, this week saw discussions for a few separate bills, including the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, which Democrats claimed still “reeks” of Sam Bankman-Fried – the disgraced former FTX exec who was among the chief supporters. On the other hand, Republicans were not too happy that the stablecoin legislative proposal also failed to pass.

Another talked-about point coming from the States was the Wednesday FOMC meeting. The Federal Reserve was expected to increase the key interest rates by 25 basis points after failing to do so during the previous such meeting.

Typically, such moves lead to enhanced volatility for bitcoin and the rest of the market, but this wasn’t the case on Wednesday. The primary cryptocurrency didn’t have the best week in terms of price action, as it failed to remain above $30,000 during the weekend and hasn’t been above that line since. Furthermore, it painted a monthly low beneath $29,000 on Monday.

Interesting news came out from Twitter as the owner – Elon Musk – announced a rebranding and a logo change to “X.” Additionally, he hinted at potential integration of Dogecoin, which sent the meme coin’s price flying to a three-month peak during the week.

Nevertheless, most crypto assets suffered in the past week, with GALA, Injective, Mantle, and PEPE leading the adverse trend with double-digit price drops. Ripple’s native token, as well as Bitcoin SV, also posted 7-day declines of around 8%.

Market Data

Market Cap: $1,230B | 24H Vol: $32B | BTC Dominance: 46.3%

BTC: $29,281 (-1.6%) | ETH: $1,869 (-1%) | BNB: $241 (-1.1%)

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss

4 Problems With Sam Altman’s Worldcoin, According to Vitalik. This week saw the much-anticipated launch of Worldcoin, but the project faced enhanced criticism over centralization and a potential lack of privacy. Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin also weighed in on the matter, outlining his four problems with it.

KuCoin CEO Sheds Light on Allegations of Mass Layoffs. Reports emerged earlier this week that the popular exchange was planning to cut 30% of its workforce. KuCoin’s CEO was quick to address the rumors, saying the layoffs will be due to performance reviews, not internal problems.

Binance Officially Files for Dismissal of CFTC’s Case. After a week of speculations, the world’s largest crypto exchange, alongside its CEO, filed to have the lawsuit by the US CFTC dismissed, claiming the regulator didn’t have jurisdiction over Binance and CZ.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong Calls for Voting in Favor of FIT21. In continuation of the aforementioned FIT21 bill, Coinbase’s CEO urged US citizens to vote “yes” to it, even though it’s just the first out of many steps needed for regulatory clarity in the States.

Federal Reserve Raises Rates Again By 0.25%, Bitcoin Trades Flat. As mentioned above, the US Federal Reserve resumed its monetary policy of increasing the interest rates. The latest 25 bps hike, though, didn’t result in immediate price volatility for BTC.

Bitcoin Correlation With US Equities at 2-Year Low, Potential Bullish Signal? On-chain data provided by Kaiko revealed that the positive correlation between some of the most prominent US stock market indexes and BTC has dropped to a 2-year-low, which some speculated could be a potential bullish signal for the cryptocurrency.