Investing.com– The price of bitcoin fell slightly on Thursday, staying 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.
Easing concerns about a massive potential selling event by the defunct Mt Gox exchange offered Bitcoin some relief. But this was offset by the strength of the dollar, which rose to a more than two-week high as anticipation of more economic data kept traders largely biased towards the dollar.
fell 1.1% in the last 24 hours to $68,083.9 at 01:30 ET (05:30 GMT). The world's largest cryptocurrency remained within the trading range of between $60,000 and $70,000 established since mid-March.
Inflation and rate anxiety keep Bitcoin under pressure
Crypto markets were reeling from a series of hawkish comments from the Federal Reserve over the past two weeks, as several policymakers signaled that the bank needed to be more convinced that inflation was coming down.
This put the upcoming economic readings of the United States squarely in focus. A revised reading of first-quarter U.S. data will be released on Thursday, and any signs of economic resilience will give the Fed more room to keep rates high for longer.
Data – the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge – due to be released on Friday will be more closely watched.
Traders were seen steadily discounting expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut rates in September, boosting the dollar and weighing on most risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.
High rates bode poorly for cryptocurrencies, as they diminish the attractiveness of speculative assets.
Still, recent data showed that crypto investment products recorded a third consecutive week of inflows, with Ether seeing a surge in inflows due to optimism over the United States' approval of an exchange-traded fund that directly tracks the second token. biggest in the world.
Crypto Price Today: Ether Falls After ETF Rally, Altcoins Fall
fell 2.3% to $3,780.62 on Thursday, moving further away from recent two-month peaks as enthusiasm for the immediate approval of an Ether spot ETF cooled.
While the Securities and Exchange Commission approved applications from major exchanges to list potential spot ETF products, the regulator still needed to engage with applications from potential issuers of the products, meaning it was still a long way from listing.
Other altcoins fell amid interest rate jitters. and fell 0.7% and 2.3%, respectively, while among meme tokens, they lost more than 3% each.
