Bitcoin Nearly Hits $43K, Trades at 10-Day High

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday that raising the benchmark U.S. interest rate by 50 basis points (0.5 percentage point) “will be on the table” for the next Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) meeting in May in remarks at the International Monetary Fund debate. It was widely expected that there will be a 50 basis point rate hike in May or June to combat inflation.

“Bitcoin price action has continued to whipsaw between a wider range of $38 – $47,000 which has thus far remained intact since the beginning of the year,” said Tammy Da Costa, analyst at DailyFX, “Due to the high correlation recently seen between bitcoin and tech stocks, there was a degree of concern about how crypto would react. However, bulls held ground above short-term support at the $40,000 level which now brings the psychological level of $44,000 into play.”

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index is at the “Fear” level at the moment. “Retail interest in the crypto market is waning as Google searches for bitcoin have plummeted to lows not seen in over a year” wrote Marcus Sotiriou, analyst at the UK based digital asset broker GlobalBlock in a newsletter, “Historically, a significantly low interest from retail has created profitable buying opportunities.”

“Despite retail being fearful and uninterested,” wrote Sotiriou, “institutional adoption continues.”

Germany’s Commerzbank (CBK) applied for a crypto license earlier this year. This is the first major bank in Germany to move towards crypto adoption.

Ether (ETH) grew 1.14% in the past 24 hours, trading just above $3,100.

U.S. stocks were down today, with the S&P 500 down 0.09% and the Nasdaq down 0.35%.