BTC/USD: Bitcoin Slides Under $60,000 with a Lot at Stake in This Week’s Fed Decision

Crypto traders are holding their breath this week as the Fed gears up to update its interest rate decision. The key question: 25 or 50?

• Bitcoin prices BTCUSD sank below $60,000 early Monday morning after failing to hold above the high-water mark over the weekend. Cryptocurrency traders are getting jittery over the outlook for the week — and there’s a lot to look out for. But the biggest event comes Wednesday when the Federal Reserve is going to make its move on interest rates. The key question: 25 or 50?
• The US central bank will decide how much to cut interest rates and that decision is poised to shake up not just the crypto space but global markets in general. On the one hand, there’s the option of a cut by 25 basis points. A fuller, bigger half-point cut is the other option. Bitcoin and the digital asset space have been getting increasingly correlated to macro factors so make sure to protect your portfolio from seesawing volatility as markets move closer to the rate decision.
• Let’s take a look at the ETF space. Investors are showing elevated appetite for spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). On Friday, they poured in $263 million in net new inflows across all 11 spot BTC vehicles with BlackRock’s ETF pumping by $102 million. Ethereum, the second-largest token, saw just $1.5 million in net new money on Friday pour into its own spot Ether ETFs. The bundle of ETFs was dragged by outflows from Grayscale’s ETF. Ether prices jumped to $2,400 to cap the week but fell under $2,300 early Monday.