Bitcoin
and other cryptocurrencies fell Monday, with a key level for the largest digital asset at risk as sentiment among traders soured. Macroeconomic catalysts in the days to come could prove influential for cryptos.
The price of
Bitcoin
has dropped less than 1% over the past 24 hours to $30,150, with prices briefly plunging below the psychologically important $30,000 level in earlier trading before paring losses. Bitcoin remains below recent peaks near $31,500, and looks to be losing some momentum at the bottom end of the $30,000 to $31,000 range that has dominated for much of the past three weeks.
“Bitcoin starts the week near $30,200, having fended off attempts to break below a meaningful round level since the second half of last week,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, an analyst at broker FxPro. “We should be prepared for Bitcoin to go deeper into a correction just below $29,000.”
There are some signs of dampening sentiment among crypto traders, with the Crypto Fear and Greed Index on Monday sitting to 56—just narrowly in “greed” territory—from a high of 64 last week. Bitcoin capped its best first six months of a year since 2019 at the end of June, helped by optimism over applications by
BlackRock
(ticker: BLK) and other traditional financial giants for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. But investors are now waiting for the next catalyst to move digital assets, with prices languishing in rangebound trading for weeks.
The days ahead could bring such a catalyst, with the release of the U.S. consumer-price index for June likely to move Bitcoin and the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
and
S&P 500
alike.
Cryptos, like stocks, are highly sensitive to interest rates. The major question facing investors is how much more the Federal Reserve will raise rates to bring inflation under control. CPI—a key inflation reading—due Wednesday is among the last economic indicators before the Fed’s next decision on rates at the end of the month. While markets are pricing in another rate hike in July, the CPI data could shift future expectations for rates through the end of this year.
Beyond Bitcoin,
Ether
—the second-largest crypto—fell less than 1% to $1,850. Smaller cryptos, or altcoins, exhibited much of the same, with
Cardano
and
Polygon
each down less than 1%. Memecoins were slightly weaker, with
Dogecoin
and
Shiba Inu
both shedding near 2%.
Write to Jack Denton at [email protected]
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