Bitcoin back above USD 24,000, Fed publishes February minutes

by James · February 22, 2023

Bitcoin fell in a mixed morning of trading for the 10 non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies by market capitalization on Thursday in Asia. XRP posted the biggest gains on the chart while Solana led losses. The US central bank published its meeting minutes from February on Wednesday, hinting at further interest rate increases.

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Fast facts

Bitcoin fell 1.0% over the past 24 hours to trade at $24,190 at 8 a.m. in Hong Kong, after falling as low as $23,644 overnight. The world’s leading cryptocurrency traded down 0.5% in the past week, according to CoinMarketCap. Ethereum fell 0.9% to $1,643, falling 1.8% over the past seven days.
XRP rose 0.9% to $0.39, although the token still traded down 1.4% over the past seven days. FTX Japan, the Japanese arm of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX.com, reinstated XRP Withdrawal Overnight.
Solana fell 3.1% to trade at $24.2, while rising 1.2% in the past seven days. Solana Spaces, a startup funded by the Solana Foundation that promotes its namesake blockchain with its brick-and-mortar stores in New York and Miami, announced on Tuesday, it will close its locations by the end of the month.
Toncoin, the 26th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, rose 5.5% to $42.47, bringing its weekly gain to 5.6%. The Open Network, a blockchain powered by Toncoin, released a governance platform on Tuesday that allows Toncoin validators to vote on decisions on the network.
Total crypto market capitalization fell 1.5% to $1.08 trillion at 8 a.m. in Hong Kong. Total trading volume in the last 24 hours was down 4.9% to $63 billion.
US stocks had a mixed trading day on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3% and the S&P 500 fell 0.2% while the Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.1%.
Investors reacted with trepidation to the release of the Fed’s meeting minutes on Wednesday, which showed the central bank acknowledged inflation was cooling in the economy but said labor markets “remained very tight, contributing to continued upward pressure on wages and prices.”
The minutes also revealed that some members of the Fed pushed for a 50 basis point rate hike at the Fed’s last meeting, when the central bank instead announced a 25 basis point rate hike to a target of 4.5% – 4.75%, the highest the level since October 2007.
Analysts at CME Group predict about a 75% chance the Fed will raise interest rates by another 25 basis points next month.
The latest consumer price index data showed inflation was up 6.4% in January from a year ago, down from 6.5% in December and 7.1% in November. The Fed has indicated that it is trying to get inflation down to a target range of 2%.