Cryptos Slip As SEC, Fed Decisions Loom

Cryptocurrencies declined close to a percent in the past 24 hours amidst an agonizing wait for regulatory approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission for a Bitcoin-Spot ETF. Anxiety ahead of the monetary policy decision by the Fed also dampened sentiment in the digital assets market.

Data released on Thursday which showed a more-than-expected growth in the U.S. GDP in the third quarter also added to the lingering fears of a more hawkish Fed. The U.S. economy had expanded at an annualized 4.9 percent in the third quarter of 2023 versus 2.1 percent in the second quarter. The growth, which is the most since the last quarter of 2021, had also exceeded market forecasts of a growth of 4.3 percent.

The fear of the recently released strong economic data from the U.S. goading the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates restrictive for long impacted bond market sentiment as well. Ten-year U.S. bond yields traded between 4.890 percent and 4.849 percent and is currently at 4.870, recording a gain of 0.49 percent from the previous close. Spike in interest rates increases the opportunity cost of holding cryptocurrencies which are inherently non-interest bearing.

The expected hawkish tone in the Fed’s language as well as fears of the Middle East conflict widening further, helped safe haven Dollar rise against the basket of currencies, lifting the Dollar Index to 106.74, from 106.60 at the previous close.

Wall Street Futures are trading mixed, after suffering massive losses on Thursday. Crude oil prices jumped more than 2 percent whereas gold futures have slipped below the flatline.

Overall crypto market capitalization hovered close to the level of $1.25 trillion. The 24-hour trading volume dropped 27 percent to $39 billion.

Bitcoin is currently trading at $34,023.01, having recorded a loss of 0.60 percent in the past 24 hours, weekly gain of 14.3 percent and year-to-date gain of 105 percent. Bitcoin currently dominates close to 53 percent of the overall crypto market.

Ethereum too recorded overnight loss of 1.9 percent. Ether is currently changing hands at $1,783.33, after adding 10.7 percent over the past week and 48 percent over the year 2023. Ether’s crypto market share is a little more than 17 percent of the overall market.

Among the top-10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies, Solana (SOL) topped overnight gains with a surge of 2.6 percent. Chainlink (LINK) topped weekly gains with an addition of close to 47 percent. Solana (SOL) dazzled in year-to-date gains as well with an addition of close to 226 percent.

Among the top-100 cryptocurrencies, 95th ranked FLOKI (FLOKI) topped overnight gains with a surge of 14.5 percent. 64th ranked Neo (NEO) followed with gains of 13.7 percent whereas 44th ranked Injective (INJ) added 10.2 percent in the past 24 hours.

47th ranked Bitcoin SV (BSV) is the biggest laggard with an overnight decline of 7.1 percent. 78th ranked Gala (GALA0 and 65th ranked Mina (MINA) have both erased more than 6 percent.

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