The price of bitcoin fell on Friday amid a lack of any major positive signals for crypto assets, although the token's losses were limited by ongoing speculation about lower interest rates in the United States. Writes UNN with reference to Investing.
The token has recovered some of last week's losses, but remains mostly within the trading range it has held for most of this year. The demand for cryptocurrencies from retail investors is weakening, and the excitement around the launch of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds has diminished.
Uncertainty about the regulatory situation in the cryptocurrency sector is also putting pressure, especially after Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris outpaced Republican candidate Donald Trump after a tense presidential debate.
Bitcoin fell by 0.5% to $57,891.5. Despite the weekly increase, bitcoin remains within the trading range of $50,000 to $60,000, which has been held for most of the year.
The world's largest cryptocurrency is up 6.9% this week, with most of the gains coming from bargain buying after last week's significant losses. Bitcoin continues to fluctuate within this range as it looks for a new direction after setting record highs in March.
The token continued to demonstrate its decoupling from gold, which was confirmed by CryptoQuant data this week. In contrast to bitcoin, the yellow metal hit a record high on Friday amid rising demand for safe assets and expectations of lower interest rates.
Bitcoin, for its part, lagged even other risky markets and benefited little from the prospect of the Federal Reserve cutting rates.
Pro-cryptocurrency presidential candidate Donald Trump lost support this week, losing to Kamala Harris, who was recognized as the winner in a heated presidential debate.
Trump announced on his Truth.Social platform that he would no longer participate in a debate with Harris, while continuing to personally attack his political opponents and claiming to have won the debate.
The decline in Trump's position has generated negative signals for the cryptocurrency market, as he is known for his pro-cryptocurrency views. Harris, on the other hand, is likely to continue the Biden administration's policy of tightening regulation in the crypto sector.
Cryptocurrency prices today: Altcoins show mixed results amid speculation of rate cuts
The broader cryptocurrency markets showed mixed results, mostly following bitcoin's slight losses.
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, was down 0.3% at $2,350.61. MATIC, ADA, and SOL remained stable or slightly down, while XRP gained 6%.
Among memecoins, DOGE grew by 0.7%.
The main focus is now on the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting, where the cycle of rate cuts is expected to begin. However, markets remain divided on whether the Fed will cut rates by 25 or 50 basis points.
Recall
Bitcoin demonstrated growth amid expectations of important economic data and possible decisions by the US Federal Reserve on interest rates last week.