Leading cryptocurrencies advanced Wednesday as indications of a rate cut by the Federal Reserve boosted investors' confidence in riskier assets.
Cryptocurrency Gains +/- Price (Recorded 8:45 p.m. EDT) Bitcoin BTC/USD +3.17% $61,005.53 Ethereum ETH/USD
+2.01% $2,633.89 Dogecoin DOGE/USD +2.82% $0.106
What Happened: Bitcoin began to trend upward mid-day, sailing as high as $61,800 by market close. However, profit-taking pulled King Crypto down to the edge of $61,000.
Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, spiked over $2,600 earlier in the day, later consolidating in the $2,630 – $2,650 range.
Sentiment also improved amid reports that Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris would back measures to help grow the cryptocurrency industry.
Bitcoin's Open Interest soared 5.39% in the last 24 hours, indicating a rise in speculative interest for the leading cryptocurrency. Money invested in Ethereum's derivatives market also rose 2%.
Moreover, long volume rose 2.13% to $29.13 billion in the last 24 hours, while short volume fell 2.3% to $28.52 billion.
The Cryptocurrency Fear & Greed Index remained to flash “Fear” as of this writing, however the reading vastly improved to 39 from 26 the day before.
Top Gainers (24-Hours)
Cryptocurrency Gains +/- Price (Recorded at 8:45 p.m. EDT) Fantom (FTM) +16.79% $0.4628 Polygon (MATIC) +14.28% $0.5295 Beam (BEAM) +13.38% $0.01486
The global cryptocurrency market stood at $2.15 trillion, following an increase of 2.59% in the last 24 hours.
Stocks ended in the green, reversing Tuesday's dip. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 55.52 points, or 0.14%, to close at 40,890.49. Broad-based S&P 500 index gained 0.42% to close at 5,620.85 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lifted 0.57% to end at 17,918.99.
The uptick came after minutes from the July Federal Open Market Committee meeting revealed that policymakers are leaning toward lowering interest rates during next month’s FOMC meeting, the first in over four years.
Investors now eagerly await Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's speech slated for Friday to get additional clues about the central bank's monetary policy.
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Analyst Notes: Popular cryptocurrency analyst and trader Rekt Capital noted that Bitcoin's revisit to the local highs, i.e., $61,600.
However, for the top cryptocurrency to break out of the range, it must close above this level, the trader stated.
#BTC
The local highs have been revisited (black)
Now Bitcoin needs to Daily Close above these highs to confirm a break beyond them
Daily Close above black is key because the last time price upside wicked beyond black BTC rejected strongly (red arrow)$BTC #Crypto #Bitcoin https://t.co/K53XkNCZXi pic.twitter.com/L0JtfAramT — Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) August 21, 2024
Widely-followed cryptocurrency voice Michaël van de Poppe said that Ethereum needs to hold above the "crucial" level of $2,500.
"If that happens and the momentum returns through the ETF, the next target is $3,150," Van de Poppe projected.
The only thing $ETH needs to do is to hold above the crucial area of $2,500.
If that happens and the momentum returns through the ETF, the next target is $3,150.
Feels good to be back in up-only modus. pic.twitter.com/sbG1ao5rwX — Michaël van de Poppe (@CryptoMichNL) August 21, 2024
Photo by Avi Rozen on Shutterstock
