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Investing.com– The price of bitcoin weakened in the Asian session on Friday, as the strength of the dollar, which rebounded sharply to three-week highs, kept the world's largest cryptocurrency around $66,000.
It fell 1.4% to $66,082.0 at 01:20 a.m. (CET) (05:20 GMT). The token saw a strong dose of consolidation from the all-time highs of the last seven days, but still remained stable above the weekly lows.
The strength of the dollar was the biggest source of pressure on crypto markets, as an unexpected interest rate cut by the dollar and dovish signals from the dollar caused traders to firmly hold on to the dollar as one of the few high-dollar currencies. performance and low risk. They rose to a three-week high of more than 104 points.
Bitcoin Price Heads For Weekly Loss Amid Dollar Strength, Profit Taking
The world's largest cryptocurrency was now trading around 5% below last Friday's levels, amid dollar pressure and sustained profit-taking.
The token had hit all-time highs above $73,000 last week as it benefited from strong capital flows into recently approved spot exchange-traded funds in US markets. These funds were a key point of support for Bitcoin so far in 2024, with the token trading up around 50% during the year.
Bitcoin also remained well above the lows hit during the week, when anticipation of a Federal Reserve meeting drove the token to a low of $60,000.
But the near-term outlook for the token was clouded by a strong dollar, as signs of resilience in the US economy, compared to its peers in the developed world, made the dollar look especially attractive. The Federal Reserve could also lag behind most of its peers in interest rate cuts.
Still, with the Federal Reserve maintaining its outlook for at least three interest rate cuts in 2024, the dollar is expected to eventually fall. Markets are still positioned for a 25 basis point cut in June, according to the .
This scenario bodes well for Bitcoin, as the highly speculative nature of the token helps it thrive in a low rate environment.
A halving event, which is expected to reduce the generation of new Bitcoin by 50%, is also expected to push prices higher in 2024. The halving is expected to occur in April.
