Market Fluctuations: Bitcoin and Ether Experience Declines as US Federal Reserve Opts for Unchanged Interest Rates

The cryptocurrency market witnessed a predominantly negative trend on Thursday, February 1, with Bitcoin leading the downturn with a loss of 2.28 percent. This decline pushed the price of Bitcoin below the recently re-claimed threshold of $42,400 (roughly Rs. 35 lakh). At the time of reporting, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $42,020 (approximately Rs. 34.8 lakh). Analysts from CoinDCX attributed the shift from positive to slightly bearish market conditions over the past 24 hours to the decision of the Federal Reserve to maintain unchanged interest rates.

Ether (ETH) mirrored Bitcoin’s trajectory, experiencing a loss of 3.78 percent, resulting in its current value standing at $2,258 (approximately Rs. 1.87 lakh).

Providing insights into the market dynamics, the CoinDCX team noted, “BTC, positioned within its range, is currently situated in the middle, with the rising dominance of BTC causing declines in most of the altcoins. ETH reflects a parallel situation, trading within its established range. Additionally, the market sentiment is influenced by the regular movement of funds through ETFs, contributing to the overall market dynamics.” This analysis underscores the interconnected nature of the cryptocurrency market, where external factors such as interest rate decisions can trigger fluctuations across various digital assets.

Most cryptocurrencies showed losses on Thursday. These include Cardano, Avalanche, Dogecoin, Polkadot, Chainlink, and Polygon.Other cryptocurrencies that showed price dips include Binance Coin, Solana, Ripple, Tether, USD Coin, and Leo.

“The Fed’s decision to maintain interest rates dealt a blow to predictions of cuts, impacting Bitcoin’s value. The next catalyst could be an increased demand with less supply due to BTC ETF access which could cause a price surge. Technical indicators for Bitcoin present a mixed picture. Moving averages signal a ‘buy’, while the Ichimoku Base Line remains neutral,” Rajagopal Menon, Vice President, WazirX

“Another big news came for the bankrupt exchange FTX where in a court hearing FTX’s lawyer said that they expect FTX customers to be paid in full, which largely means if a customer held 1 BTC when its price was around $16,000 (roughly Rs 13.2 lakh), they will get the full $16,000 back and not 1 BTC.

However, they feel it’s unlikely the exchange will restart operations. This news came in as crypto lender Celsius has emerged from its bankruptcy and will start distributing over 3 billion dollars of assets to its creditors,” CoinSwitch Markets Desk