Bitcoin price remains volatile as US inflation figures reach new highs
Rising inflation numbers coupled with fears of faster quantitative easing by the Fed seem to have induced more near-term market uncertainty.
- The total market capitalisation of the crypto market currently stands at AUD$2.38 trillion (US$1.744 trillion), with Bitcoin's dominance rate hovering around 42.5%.
- The US CPI's (Consumer Price Index) latest readings show that interest rates are currently hovering around a 50-year high of 7.9%.
- Cryptocurrency exchange OkCoin has launched a new AUD$225 million (US$165 million) initiative to help promote Bitcoin adoption globally.
After hitting a relative high of AUD$58,000 a little over 24 hours ago, Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by total market capitalisation, has been faced with a series of major price corrections. First, the asset saw its value first dip to AUD$54,500 and then subsequently to around AUD$53,500 within a matter of hours. At press time, BTC is trading at a price point of AUD$52,460.
Bears seem to be fully in control of the market, an opinion that ExoAlpha chief investment officer David Lifchitz echoes. In his view, BTC's above-stated spike to AUD$58,000 (US$42,500) was totally unexpected and for the foreseeable future, the currency will continue to remain range-bound around AUD$45,000–$61,500 (US$33,000–$45,000). He went on to add: "Without any follow-through in the next 48 hours and a possible break above US$45,000 towards US$50,000, BTC will probably keep on bouncing in the range."
BTC's ongoing price action has also been looked at in-depth by crypto research entity Stack Funds, whose analysts believe that the flagship asset's continued oscillation between the AUD$48,000–$61,500 range shows that the currency has no "strong directional momentum" to back its sails. The firm further noted that Bitcoin's value is being driven largely by news of the Russia-Ukraine conflict as well as rising inflation numbers. To this point, the US CPI currently stands at 7.9%, its highest level in nearly half a century.
Lastly, analyst Michaël van de Poppe noted that the above-stated inflation numbers may force the American government to hike interest rates – as well as issue restrictive quantitative tightening measures – earlier than expected.
OkCoin seeks to promote Bitcoin adoption via major investment drive
Prominent digital asset trading platform Okcoin (in conjunction with the Stacks Accelerator and Stacks Foundation) revealed recently that it has launched a new BTC investment drive called Bitcoin Odyssey, estimated to be worth US$165 million. To elaborate, the effort is being helmed by a number of mainstream entities, including the Digital Currency Group, GBV Capital, White Star Capital and GSR, among others.
OkCoin's head of listings Alex Chizhik noted that the above-mentioned sum of money will be used to host initiatives currently being devised atop Stacks, an open-source network for Bitcoin-based smart contracts.
Paxos receives regulatory greenlight from Singaporean authorities
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced yesterday that it had given permission to stablecoin issuer Paxos to start offering firms operating within the region with a wide range of crypto-centric services. The license will allow the company to increase its footprint across Asia, allowing clients to utilise Paxos' various existing offerings such as Paxos Standard (PAX), Binance USD (BUSD), PAX Gold (PAXG) and Pax Dollar (USDP).
Interested in cryptocurrency? Learn more about the basics with our beginner's guide to Bitcoin, dive deeper by learning about Ethereum and see what blockchain can do with our simple guide to DeFi.
Disclosure: The author owns a range of cryptocurrencies at the time of writing.
