Markets
Cryptocurrency Markets Slump Ahead of Fed Meeting
Over $340 million of long positions have been liquidated in the last 24 hours.
Cryptocurrency markets continued to slide Wednesday morning, just hours before the Federal Reserve releases its interest rate decision.
Bitcoin (BTC) is hovering around $57,000, its lowest level since late February, after falling 6% in the past 24 hours.
Ether (ETH) traded at just $2,820, while Dogecoin (DOGE) slipped 8%. Solana (SOL) and Avalanche (AVAX) both suffered losses of around 7%.
ETH price
CoinGlass reported that over $421 million in cryptocurrency futures positions were liquidated in the last 24 hours, of which over $349 million were long positions. Being long on an asset means betting that its price will rise, while being short means betting that it will fall.
Markus Thielen, CEO and chief analyst at 10x Research, believes Bitcoin could fall to $52,000. “The main driver of the recent Bitcoin price rally has been the inflow of funds into Bitcoin ETFs, which has dried up over the last 4-5 weeks. The internal components of the market have weakened,” he said in a tweet on X.
Wall Street awaits Fed rate decision
Stock markets slipped on Wednesday as investors looked ahead to the Federal Reserve’s rate policy decision.
Futures tied to the S&P 500 market index fell 0.51%, while Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.82%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures also fell 0.26%.
MicroStrategy (MSTR), the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, fell 5%. Coinbase (COIN), a major cryptocurrency exchange, posted a 3.5% loss.
Mining stocks continue to take a hit. Riot Platforms (RIOT) and Marathon Digital (MARA) saw their shares fall by 3.2% and 3.5% respectively.
The US central bank will release its rate policy statement at 2pm Eastern time, after which Fed Chair Jerome Powell will address a press conference at 2.30pm.
Meanwhile, the Hong Kong debut of spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs was not very successful on its first day, with trading volume of just over $11 million.
However, considering the relatively smaller size of Hong Kong’s ETF market compared to that of the United States, ETF analyst Eric Balchunas noticed that the debut was more successful than expected. “If you track the numbers, this was big,” Balchunas said.