Cryptocurrencies Muted As Fed Review Looms

Cryptocurrencies remain subdued amidst a confluence of central bank monetary policy reviews, key economic data releases, continuing ETF frenzy, simmering geopolitical tensions and an intermittent rise in bond yields.

Bank of Canada and the European Central Bank maintained status quo on interest rates. Bank of Japan, Federal Reserve as well as the Bank of England are scheduled to announce interest rate decisions over the next few days.

Despite Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s lament on high inflation, the Fed is widely expected to maintain status quo. The CME FedWatch tool shows a 98.3-percent probability for the Federal Reserve to hold rates at its review due on November 1. However, interest rate traders expect a probability of 24.4 percent for a quarter-point rate hike in the Fed’s review in December and a 30.6-percent probability for a similar hike in January.

Data released just a while ago showed new orders for manufactured durable goods in the United States surging by 4.7 percent month-over-month in September. The reading revealed a higher-than-expected rebound from a 0.1 percent contraction in August. Markets had expected a 1.7 percent rise.

Data released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis just a while ago also showed that the U.S. economy 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, exceeded market forecasts of a growth of 4.3 percent. The strong data has triggered debate on the resilience of the American consumer and speculation about the headroom available for the Fed to further tighten monetary policy.

The crypto market momentum fueled by strong expectations of regulatory approval for Bitcoin ETF and the potential institutional money that is expected to flow, kept market sentiment bullish.

However, simmering geopolitical tensions and the sporadic jump in bond yields limited gains in the crypto space. Ten-year U.S. bond yields which had fallen to 4.80 percent after touching a high of 5.02 percent on October 23, rose again to 4.99 percent earlier in the day’s trade. It has since eased to 4.91 percent.

Overall crypto market capitalization is currently steady at $1.27 trillion. The 24-hour trading volume has declined 10 percent to $53 billion.

Bitcoin (BTC) edged down to $34,332.62. Weekly gains exceed 20 percent, whereas year-to-date gains are a little over 106 percent. The 24-hour high stood at $35,133.76. Bitcoin’s crypto market dominance remains strong at 52.85 percent.

Ethereum (ETH) added 1.97 percent in the past 24 hours lifting weekly gains to 16.9 percent and year-to-date gains to 51.4 percent.

BNB (BNB) gained 0.4 percent overnight, lifting weekly gains to 6.8 percent and curtailing year-to-date losses to 7.6 percent.

XRP (XRP) added more than 1 percent in the past 24 hours, 15 percent in the past week and close to 65 percent in 2023 at its current price of $0.5577.

Solana (SOL) slipped 1.6 percent in the past 24 hours but is going strong with weekly gains of 33 percent and year-to-date gains of 222 percent.

Amidst strong whale activity, Dogecoin (DOGE) gained more than 10 percent in the past 24 hours that helped it to rise to the 8th position overall. DOGE also reversed year-to-date losses with the brilliant rally. DOGE’s weekly gains amount to 25 percent whereas year-to-date gains exceed 4.7 percent.

9th ranked Cardano (ADA) gained 4.5 percent in the past 24 hours, 20.8 percent in the past week and 17.4 percent in 2023.

TRON (TRX) traded just above the flatline, holding on to weekly gains of 4.4 percent and year-to-date gains of 70 percent.

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