Bitcoin (BTC) has steadied the ship following a tetchy start to the week that saw the benchmark cryptocurrency plummet nearly 600 basis points against the US dollar on Monday.
Tuesday trades were far less volatile, with bitcoin creeping half a percentage point higher, though these incremental gains were pared back this morning.
At the time of writing, the BTC/USDT pair was swapping for $41,221, with the bulls aiming to fend off a dip below $40,000.
Orders placed on the Binance exchange suggest strong support at this price point, though all eyes are on the pending interest rate decision from the US Federal Reserve.
There is near-unanimous consensus that base rates will hold at 5.5%, though any hawkish rhetoric emerging from the committee could hit market sentiment.
Bitcoin exchange-traded fund hype remains rampant, with Bloomberg’s ETF mage James Seyffart disclosing that four different issuers have met with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) “in the last few days” to discuss their applications.
Namely, BlackRock (NYSE:BLK), Grayscale and Fidelity have all met up with the regulator, presumably to negotiate acceptance of their bitcoin-tracked products into the stock market.
Bitcoin’s year-to-date gains remain close to 150% – Source: tradingview.com
While bitcoin has levelled out, the second-largest cryptocurrency Ethereum (ETH) has underperformed.
The ETH/USDT pair fell by a percentage point on Tuesday and continued to fall this morning to a spot price of $2,180.
Overnight losses were higher In the broader altcoin space though, with Solana (SOL) dipping 7%, Avalanche (AVAX) 12%, Cardano (ADA) 3.7% and Ripple (XRP) 2.5%. Binance’s BNB token, however, managed to hold its ground.
Global cryptocurrency market capitalisation currently stands at $1.53 trillion, with bitcoin dominance at 53.4%.
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