Bitcoin in a Death Grip as Jerome Powell Warns of Further Rate Hikes
All eyes are on bitcoin yet again as Jerome Powell – the man in charge of the Federal Reserve – said in a recent interview that his office is not above faster, larger rate hikes in 2023, and that they could come sooner than most people anticipate.
Bitcoin Could Suffer with More Rate Hikes
There is great fear of more rate hikes given they swarmed 2022, a time that was extremely bearish for bitcoin. Inflation was soaring and the economy was in dire straits thanks to the many terrible decisions made by Joe Biden and his nation-hating cronies.
As a result, the Fed was put in a very compromising position, and it was forced to hike rates as a means of fighting inflation. By keeping prices “stable,” however, many Americans lost their opportunities to take advantage of car and home ownership, while the prices of many crypto assets fell into the toilet.
Nobody wants this to happen again. The prices of bitcoin and many leading assets began incurring small jumps since the beginning of 2023 (bitcoin rose to $25K in February), and they are concerned that things are going to again be reversed given the Federal Reserve is so willing to keep up the charade that hiking rates somehow keeps the American economy in a stronger position.
There are also mounting fears regarding the low-end report issued by Silvergate Bank, a crypto institution that lost more than $1 billion at the end of 2022 alone. Edward Moya – senior market analyst at OANDA – explained in a recent interview:
Bitcoin continues to drift lower ahead of a big macro and potentially regulatory week. The first couple months of the year have already unraveled most macro plays as bitcoin has clearly outperformed. Given the latest contagion risks, this time from Silvergate Capital, outflows (with ETPs) have been steadily increasing. Bitcoin appears range bound a while longer, but eventually, prices should have a major move. It seems the more Wall Street positions itself for a major selloff with risky assets, the markets refuse to break. After this week, if we don’t get any surprises from Powell, we could potentially have a peak in rates firmly in place if the labor market shows signs of softening.
Maybe It’ll Really Spike!
Trader Tone Vays also threw his two cents into the mix, though he’s at the opposite end of the spectrum. He’s predicting a monster rally for BTC, claiming:
So, this is my projection. There [are] two paths. We can hit this line [diagonal resistance] twice like we did in the last cycle. We can hit this line once near the end like we did in the prior cycle [2017]. If we hit it near the end, we’re going to go higher [to] $300,000. If we hit it twice, we’re going to go lower [to] $200,000.
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