Bitcoin's price saw a slight uptick following a weekend rebound, yet the cryptocurrency remained confined within its established trading range due to ongoing uncertainty about U.S. interest rates. By 09:13 ET (13:13 GMT), Bitcoin had stabilized at $67,085.1, showing minimal movement over the past 24 hours. The digital currency has been fluctuating between $60,000 and $70,000 since mid-March, with no significant factors driving a breakout. Investor interest in Bitcoin was dampened by a strong rally in metal markets; gold reached an all-time high on Monday driven by safe-haven demand and long positions.
The spotlight this week is on signals from the Federal Reserve that could influence interest rate expectations. The minutes from the Fed's late-April meeting will be released on Wednesday, alongside speeches from several key Fed officials. Market participants are keenly awaiting any new insights into interest rates after April's soft inflation data shifted focus toward a potential rate cut in September. However, Fed officials cautioned that more evidence is needed to confirm that inflation is declining.
The dollar stabilized after last week's losses, thereby capping any significant gains for Bitcoin. Additionally, concerns about geopolitical instability in the Middle East—following the deaths of Iran's President and foreign minister in a helicopter crash—kept risk appetite low and steered traders towards safe havens like gold and the dollar.
This environment also saw reduced capital inflows into crypto investment vehicles as excitement over spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds introduced earlier this year waned.
In terms of altcoins, most major tokens mirrored Bitcoin’s subdued performance on Monday. Ethereum rose 0.4% to $3,090.91 while XRP declined by 0.3%. Solana experienced a notable increase of 5.1%. Memecoins showed mixed results; DOGE increased by 1.2%, whereas SHIB remained unchanged.
Altcoins have struggled to gain momentum recently as much of the crypto capital continues to favor Bitcoin. Regulatory concerns targeting Ethereum by the Securities and Exchange Commission have further dampened enthusiasm for altcoins.
The number of new Bitcoin wallets has dropped to its lowest level since 2018 according to data from The Block; only an average of 275,000 addresses were added daily over the past week compared to 625,000 six months ago. Other key metrics such as miner revenue (measured by hash rate), transaction fees, and on-chain volume have also seen declines.
Despite these downturns in on-chain metrics, innovative protocols on the Bitcoin network are attracting significant interest from venture capital firms potentially laying ground work for future growth.
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