Bitcoin stalls, DOGE rises ahead of likely Fed rate hike
Bitcoin was stuck just below $30,000 while Dogecoin surged 10 percent amid optimism about what Elon Musk’s Twitter rebranding to X meant for the meme coin early in Asian trading.
Bitcoin (BTC) briefly surpassed $30,000 in June after BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, filed for a Bitcoin ETF. However, the price has since stuck around $30,000, partly due to concerns about the Federal Reserve’s likely upcoming rate hike.
The Fed is expected to raise interest rates by 25 basis points on July 26, which could weigh on risk assets such as Bitcoin. Some investors are waiting to see if the Fed will signal a more aggressive pace of tightening in the coming months.
Ripple Labs’ partial victory in a legal feud against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also affected the prices.
As of writing, BTC’s price remains around $29,220, up 0.35 percent versus 24 hours earlier. Its volume, however, dropped 25.81 percent in the last 24 hours.
Previously on Monday, Bitcoin fell below $29,000, its lowest level since June. The numbers dropped after a report in The Wall Street Journal mentioned Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao had suggested in a private conversation that the crypto exchange’s affiliates had conducted wash trading several years ago.
Prediction for Bitcoin’s Future
Despite the current condition of Bitcoin, investment research firm Fundstrat has made a bold prediction that the price of BTC could reach $180,000 by April 2024.
The firm’s analysts believe that the upcoming halving event will lead to a surge in demand for the cryptocurrency up to over 500 percent. Bitcoin’s halving event has historically been a positive catalyst for the cryptocurrency, as the price surged in the months following each halving.
They also point to the launch of a Bitcoin ETF as a factor that could push the price. The daily demand for Bitcoin will reach $125 million, while the daily supply will only be $25 million.
How Twitter rebranding affects Dogecoin
While Bitcoin struggles to raise its market cap, the meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE) registered its biggest single-day gain since April 3 on Tuesday.
“As crypto is entering the summer lull that we initially expected for August, DOGE might be the summer’s highflyer as other crypto themes are taking a backseat,” said Markus Thielen, head of research and strategy at Matrixport.
The surge came amid speculation that DOGE could be used as a payment mechanism on the rebranded Twitter platform, now owned by Elon Musk, a vocal supporter of Dogecoin.
“Elon Musk says payments potentially integrated on X “later this year.” Is the Dogecoin army ready?” wrote crypto account Whale Chart.
Integrating the coin into Twitter would revolutionize how people interact and transact on the platform. Advertisers may be able to pay with DOGE for ads and other uses on Twitter, similar to how Tesla allows customers to pay with cryptocurrency for some merchandise. Some analysts believe that this could happen by the end of the year.
However, there are speculations among investors that Musk has been involved in falsely manipulating the price of DOGE, with some accusing the South Africa-born billionaire of insider trading.
