News updates June 22, 2022
1. Bitcoin price rises to $20.7K as Fed's Powell says more rate hikes 'appropriate'
Testimony from the Fed Chair provides no surprises while risk assets meander on the Wall Street open. Bitcoin (BTC) checked losses while United States equities drifted down on June 22 as the Federal Reserve kept quiet on monetary policy.
Powell keeps quiet on Fed moves
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD hovering near $20,500 at the June 22 Wall Street open.
The pair had wicked below the $20,000 mark overnight before recovering, still down from the previous day's $21,700 highs.
Markets braced for last-minute surprises from testimony to Congress by Fed Chair Jerome Powell on the day, this ultimately providing no fresh insight into the central bank's approach to taming rampant inflation.
"We anticipate that ongoing rate increases will be appropriate; the pace of those changes will continue to depend on the incoming data and the evolving outlook for the economy," a copy of Powell's testimony released before his appearance read.
"We will make our decisions meeting by meeting, and we will continue to communicate our thinking as clearly as possible."
Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index opened slightly down after brisk progress on the day prior, providing similarly non-volatile conditions for crypto markets.
2. Bitcoin Needs to Reach $24,800 to Challenge Recent Lows: Fundstrat's Head of Technical Strategy. As the leading cryptocurrency has managed to hold around the $20,000 level for a while, unable to go higher, the chief expert from Fundstrat Global Advisors has named the levels BTC needs to surpass in order to regain the recent losses.
"Bitcoin should reach $24,800 to challenge recent lows"
As concerns about the global economic recession have been growing, Bitcoin has again gotten stuck around the $20,000 level after moving along with stocks that have been losing value en masse.
Bitcoin has so far managed to recover to the $20,500 zone after dropping to the $19,000 level and drifting there for a while. Ethereum has recovered back to the $1,113 level after plunging to the $903 line.
Chief of technical strategy at Fundstrat Global Advisors Mark Newton told Bloomberg that "Bitcoin has hit a bottom but probably not 'the bottom.' " He believes that it needs to reach $23,000-$24,800 in order to go higher in the last week of this month.
At the moment, Bitcoin is consolidating near $20,000 the way it was sticking to the $30,000 level back in May.
Bitcoin began recovering from under $20,000 as risk sentiment in the market went down, according to Informa Global Markets.
3. U.S. Governor signs bill allowing Louisiana banks to custody Bitcoin and crypto for customers
As the cryptocurrency market expands and digital currencies become more widely adopted, some U.S. states are looking for ways to incorporate them into the operations of their financial institutions.
One of these efforts includes a bill that the Governor of Louisiana John Bel Edwards signed, allowing financial institutions in Louisiana to custody Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets for customers, as confirmed by crypto analyst Dennis Porter on June 21.
4. Is USDC Challenging USDT For The “Top Stablecoin” Title?
After Tuesday, when USD Coin’s daily’real volume’ on the Ethereum network doubled that of Tether’s USDT, it began to challenge Tether for the title of top stablecoin in the cryptocurrency world.
The fact that USDC’s real volume has roughly doubled that of USDT over the past 24 hours, at least on the Ethereum network, may be another indication that the top stablecoin’s dominance is waning away.
On June 21, Circle’s USDC hit $1.1 billion in daily real volume on the Ethereum network, which was double USDT’s actual volume of $579 million, according to crypto market analytics tool Messari.
5. Goldman Sachs Sees Higher US Recession Risk Citing Concerns the Fed Will ‘Respond Forcefully’ to High Inflation
Goldman Sachs’ economists now see an increased risk of a U.S. recession. “We are increasingly concerned that the Fed will feel compelled to respond forcefully to high headline inflation and consumer inflation expectations if energy prices rise further, even if activity slows sharply,” they explained.
6. Qatar Central Bank in ‘foundation stage‘ of launching digital currency
The 2.8-million nation of Qatar is going to join a growing range of countries experimenting with the central bank digital currency (CBDC) concept. The Qatar Central Bank (QCB) is currently “in the foundation stage” of issuing its digital currency.
On Tuesday during the “Inflation Test” session at the Qatar Economic Forum, QCB Governor Sheikh Bandar bin Mohammed bin Saoud Al Thani revealed that the bank is working to find technological solutions for its CBDC. Right now the project is in its early stage, Al Thani specified.
7. Bitcoin & Crypto Move Lower Again
The crypto market reversed lower again on Wednesday, after some optimism earlier in the week that the bottom could be behind us. According to analysts, the outlook for crypto is now highly uncertain, with some warning that prices could fall based on historical precedence, and others pointing to risks from the broader economy.
At 10:55 UTC on Wednesday morning, bitcoin (BTC) traded at USD 20,440, down 3.8% for the past 24 hours and down 8.1% for the past 7 days. At the same time, ethereum (ETH) stood at USD 1,090, down 6% for the day and 10.3% for the week.
