Bitcoin was lower on Wednesday as investors looked ahead to the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting and stayed on alert for updates on the looming bitcoin exchange-traded fund decision.
The price of bitcoin was last lower by 4% at $43,038.63, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier in the day, it fell as much as 6%, giving back nearly all of its gains from the previous day when it rallied to as high as $45,913.30, its highest level since April 2022.
Ether was down more than 5% at $2,231, while other coins suffered steeper losses. Solana and Ripple’s XRP were each lower by more than 8%. Litecoin and dogecoin each fell 10%.
Investors cited some concern that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wouldn’t approve an ETF this year as expected by many bitcoin bulls.
That uncertainty “triggered some jitters in short-term traders who then decided to unwind long positions, especially since leverage had been increasing fast,” said Noelle Acheson, economist and author of the “Crypto is Macro Now” newsletter.
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Bitcoin slides Wednesday following a big rally one day prior.
Bernstein shrugged off those worries in a note released late Wednesday morning addressing the earlier drop.
“We continue to maintain that all price dips to the ETF are market opportunities to buy bitcoin/bitcoin miners, and the market will likely bounce materially off the actual approval event (likely end of next week),” the firm’s Gautam Chhugani wrote.
Also on Wednesday, Richmond Federal Reserve President Thomas Barkin warned that although he sees a soft landing ahead, interest rate hikes remain “on the table.” Investors have hoped to see rate cuts in 2024, since Fed officials opted to hold rates steady at their December meeting and indicated three rate cuts this year.
“[Today’s] bitcoin price action is now morphing into a macro trade,” said Zach Pandl, director of research at Grayscale Investments. “We are seeing weakness in stocks, bonds and gold, and strength in the dollar. If this message is repeated in today’s Fed’s minutes, it could be additional short-term headwind for our markets.”
January hasn’t been an especially strong month for bitcoin. It has ended the month in the green five out of the last 11 years, according to CoinGlass.
Before the new year rally, bitcoin was coming off a three-week consolidation period but still managed to end December with a 12% gain. It ended 2023 up 157%.
— CNBC’s Jeff Cox and Michael Bloom contributed reporting.
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