BTC, ETH trade flat ahead of banks rate decision
By Laxmikant Khanvilkar
There’s a fresh wave of caution in the virtual digital assets (VDA) space with leading cryptocurrencies namely Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETC) price treading water ahead of key decisions on the interest rate from the global central banks.
This week is poised to test traders nerve as the US Federal Reserve, Bank of England (BoE) and European Central Bank are expected to keep interest rates at their current restrictively high levels to ensure inflation continues to fall back from the highest levels in decades.
BTC has managed to stay afloat at $43,700 during the last 24-hours. Recently, bitcoin was changing hands at around $43,599, down 0.45%
Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation, too, gave-up part of its precious session gain. It is currently trading at $2,334, down 0.74%.
Last week, Bitcoin price pierced through $44,000 mark, it’s highest since April 2022, largely on the back of ETF optimism and receding U.S. Treasury yields. The leading cryptocurrency has gained over 150% this year.
The splendid performance so far, bolstered other tokens, helping them to chart a recovery path.
Dogecoin, Avalanche, Tron are some of the tokens that are staying on the positive course.
As a result, the global crypto market cap increased by 0.40% to $1.64 trillion in the last 24 hours. However, the total crypto market volume eased 28% to $44.3 billion. Total volume in DeFi is currently $6.7 billion, and all stablecoins are $38.3 billion, representing 15.1% and 86.3%, respectively, of the total crypto market 24-hour volume. Bitcoin’s dominance is currently 52.24%, down 0.24% over the day.
The IC15 index, the barometer of the top fifteen tokens, edged 0.33% higher to 55,448.
Meanwhile, the Bitcoin and ether options trading value also known as notional open interest on Deribit, as of Friday, was the highest ever at $23.6 billion. Bitcoin options accounted for 67% of the tally, with ether contributing the rest. Options allow investors to take leveraged bets on the underlying asset and hedge their spot/futures market exposure.
Increased options open interest represents an influx of institutional traders in the crypto market and promises better price discovery.
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