Crypto Wrap: Jerome Powell’s Positive Comment Keeps Market Steady

Over the past week, the cryptocurrency market has been volatile, but largely in the green. Bitcoin (BTC) rose more than 3% and was trading near $17,000 to $16,970 on Friday. Ethereum (ETH) rose almost 9% and was trading at $1,280, according to coinmarketcap.

The cryptocurrency market fell earlier this week due to rising Covid-19 cases and protests against lockdowns in China. But in the latter part of the week, the market gained momentum after comments from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell signaled a moderation in rate hikes in upcoming policy announcements.

“Monetary policy affects the economy and inflation with uncertain lags, and the full effects of our rapid tightening so far have yet to be felt. So it makes sense to moderate the pace of our rate increases as we approach the level of restraint that will be sufficient to bring inflation down, the time to moderate the pace of rate hikes may come as early as the December meeting,” Powell said.

The Fed will announce its policy on December 14.

“The downward move was driven by protests in China and BlockFi’s coinciding bankruptcy filing. The upward move was fueled by neutral to net positive comments from the FED on upcoming rate hikes,” said Anurag Dixit, founder of crypto asset management platform Kunji.

“After collapsing in mid-November due to the FTX fiasco, the price of BTC is now back to the $17,000 level. Bitcoin and other cryptos rallied after Fed Chairman Jerome’s speech Powell, who hinted that the central bank would slow its interest rate hikes.However, they traded sideways on Thursday as Powell hinted at moderating monetary policy…However, BTC is trading below its peak annual minimum of $17,500 in June,” said Alankar Saxena, co-founder and CTO of crypto investment platform Mudrex.

However, several issues such as the solvency of the Genesis crypto exchanges and the status of the missing money in the FTX fiasco have not been resolved.

“…prices remain range, even as the contagion effect of the FTX debacle continues to lurk as a major unknown. SBF made its first public appearance since bankruptcy, showing remorse for its actions but giving highly controversial comments about the business dealings at FTX and Alameda. The suspense over Genesis and DCG’s solvency issues continued to drag on…” said Parth Chaturvedi, Head of Crypto Ecosystem at the platform. CoinSwitch crypto investment.

“Among Altcoins, Dogecoin’s week shone as the token’s price jumped almost 25% during the week and entered the list of top 5 market cap coins with a valuation of over $14 billion. “, added Chaturvedi.

On Friday, Dogecoin was trading at $0.093, up 21% over the past seven days.

What to expect in the coming week?

“If the bulls can break above $17,500, we could soon see BTC at the $18,000 level,” Saxena said.

“Ethereum was seen changing hands above the $1,270 level. The next target for ETH bulls would be at the $1,350 level,” he added.