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Bitcoin (BTC) hovered slightly below the $30,000 mark in early Asia trading on Wednesday as investors anticipated the probable continuation of the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes. Meanwhile, Dogecoin (DOGE) experienced a notable surge of 7% driven by optimism surrounding Elon Musk's recent activities on Twitter and their potential impact on the meme coin.
About a month ago, BTC soared above $30,000 following the news of finance giant BlackRock's application for a bitcoin ETF, which fueled speculations that if approved by regulators, it could attract substantial investments from traditional investors into the digital asset market. However, since then, the price has remained stagnant at that level, mainly due to concerns about the Federal Reserve's upcoming decision on July 26th, where a 25 basis point (bps) rate increase is anticipated.
At the time of reporting, the price of BTC hovered around $29,140, reflecting a slight increase of 0.2% compared to its value 24 hours ago.
"Inflation and rate concerns could be what [has been] keeping crypto prices depressed," Noelle Acheson wrote in her "Crypto is Macro" newsletter Tuesday.
Bitcoin experienced a significant drop, falling below $29,000 on Monday, marking its lowest point since June. The decline came after The Wall Street Journal published a report stating that Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, the CEO of Binance, had privately indicated that the crypto exchange's affiliates were involved in wash trading several years back. Adding to the market concerns, China's policymakers also issued warnings about a potentially difficult and lengthy economic recovery.
The Monday "BTC drop was sharp, which normally suggests a programmatic sale," Acheson wrote. "These usually recover relatively quickly, but the new lower BTC level seems to be holding, reinforcing the idea that there are just not enough new buyers ready to take positions yet."
Dogecoin (DOGE)
DOGE recently reached a value above $0.08, a threshold it had not exceeded since April until Monday. On today, the price experienced a sudden surge following CoinCryptoUs's publication of an article proposing that billionaire Elon Musk's audacious transformation of Twitter, now referred to as X, might lead to increased adoption of the beloved memecoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Musk has taken a special interest in DOGE with his various pronouncements even before he acquired Twitter, driving the token's price. “Elon clearly has an affinity for DOGE, almost as part of a running joke, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually went through with enabling payments via DOGE,” Brian D. Evans, CEO and founder of BDE Ventures, a Web3 venture studio and advisory firm, told CoinCryptoUs.
Ether (ETH), XRP, Solana (SOL)
Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, was trading at approximately $1,850, marking a 0.4% increase compared to its value 24 hours ago. Alongside other prominent altcoins, XRP experienced a recent surge of 1.3%, while SOL, the native cryptocurrency of the Solana smart contracts platform, saw a gain of 0.9%.
The CoinDesk Market Index, which serves as a gauge of the overall crypto market performance, has recently experienced a slight uptick of 0.3%. However, both the CoinDesk Bitcoin and Ethereum trend indicators currently show a neutral stance. This marks a shift from earlier this month when they were consistently in an uptrend mode.
"Some investors may be taking profits as they bet on hawkish language from the U.S. Fed following reports of rising house prices in the worlds biggest economy, which will likely give the [Federal Open Market Committee] reason to continue hiking rates throughout the year," Tim Frost, CEO of digital wealth platform Yield App, wrote in an email to CoinCryptoUs.
