Bitcoin (BTC) starts a new week with much to make up for after its worst April performance ever. The monthly close placed BTC/USD firmly within its established 2022 trading range, and fears are already that $30,000 or even lower is next. That said, sentiment has improved as May begins, and while crypto broadly remains tied to macro factors, on-chain data is pleasing rather than panicking analysts. With a decision on United States economic policy due on May 4, however, the coming days may be a matter of knee-jerk reactions as markets attempt to align themselves with central bank policy. Cointelegraph …

Bitcoin (BTC) prices could drop by 20% in the next few months, but that has not deterred its richest investors from stacking. The amount of Bitcoin held by "unique entities" with a balance of at least 1,000 BTC, or so-called "whales," has increased to its best levels since September 2021, data on Glassnode shows. Interestingly, the number in the past week grew despite Bitcoin's price decline from $43,000 to around $38,000. Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst at GlobalBlock, a U.K.-based digital asset broker, considered the latest spike in Bitcoin whale holdings as a bullish indicator, recalling a similar move in September …

Up until April 25, Bitcoin (BTC) bulls had been defending the $38,000 level, but bulls were caught off-guard by the recent drop. As Bitcoin plunged from $46,700 to $37,700 between April 5 and 26, most of the bullish bets for the upcoming $1.96 billion monthly options expiry became worthless. Regulatory concerns continue to pose a threat to Bitcoin and on April 26, the New York State Assembly passed a bill banning new proof-of-work (PoW) cryptocurrency carbon-based mining facilities in the state. Fortunately for Bitcoin, mining equipment is portable so there's no real risk to the Bitcoin network's security but the …

After weeks of delays due, in part, to partisan obstructionism, the United States Senate has confirmed the nomination of Lael Brainard, a member of the Federal Reserve's board of governors, as the next vice chair of the central bank. In a 52–43 vote on the Senate floor on Tuesday, U.S. lawmakers confirmed Brainard a vice chair of the Federal Reserve for four years, potentially beyond her term as a governor ending in January 2026. Brainard was one of four nominees waiting for approval since Republican lawmakers in the Senate Banking Committee boycotted a February committee, which would have sent the …

Ripple (XRP) continued its correction trend on April 25, falling by 5.5% to reach $0.64, its lowest level since Feb. 28. More XRP price downside ahead? The plunge increased the possibility of triggering a bearish reversal setup called descending triangle. While these patterns form usually during a downtrend, their occurrences following strong bullish moves usually mark the end of the uptrend. XRP has been in a similar trading channel since April 2022, bounded by two trendlines: a lower horizontal and an upper downward sloping. The pattern now nears its resolve as XRP pulls back toward the support trendline that's also …

Following the withdrawal of former Federal Reserve Board governor Sarah Bloom Raskin, United States President Joe Biden has announced his intention to nominate former Obama administration official and law professor Michael Barr as the central bank’s vice chair for supervision. In a Friday announcement, the White House said Barr was Biden’s pick to supervise the Federal Reserve and set the regulatory agenda for its leadership. Barr was on the advisory board of Ripple Labs from 2015 to 2017, served as the Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for financial institutions under former President Barack Obama, and taught courses on financial regulation at …

On March 11, United States President Joe Biden issued an executive order in which he encouraged the Federal Reserve to continue research on a prospective U.S. central bank digital currency, or CBDC. The order emphasized that the market capitalization of digital assets had surpassed $3 trillion in November — with Bitcoin (BTC) representing more than half of the total value of all cryptocurrency and peaking at over $60,000 — up from just $14 billion five years prior. For comparison’s sake, the U.S. money supply (M1) in the same month was $20.345 trillion. Stephen Lynch, a member of Congress who chairs …

Cardano’s (ADA) price risks undergoing a severe correction in the next few months despite touting its blockchain network’s bolstering growth and a “major” hard fork event in June. Descending channel hints at ADA sell-off ahead ADA, which makes up about 1.75% of the total crypto market capitalization, has been trending lower since September 2021 inside a “descending channel” pattern that has successfully capped its multiple upside attempts, as illustrated in the chart below. The channel showed further strength as ADA broke above its upper trendline on March 27 only to reverse entirely in later sessions, showing a lack of conviction …

Over the past three months, Bitcoin's (BTC) daily closing price fluctuated between $35,050 and $47,550, which is a 35.7% range. Although it might seem excessive, this is not unusual, especially considering BTC’s 68% historical annualized volatility. The relief rally that came after the April 11 dip below $40,000 followed the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) report that announced 8.5% for March, the highest since 1981. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, the CPI jumped to 7%, a 30-year high. For these reasons, cryptocurrency traders are increasingly concerned about the ability of the U.S. Federal Reserve rate hikes expected throughout 2022 to …

Inflation is front-page news again after the Labor Department revealed this week that the United States consumer price index soared to 8.5% year-over-year in March — the highest in over four decades. According to crypto industry veteran and Morgan Creek Capital founder Mark Yusko, price increases aren’t the real problem. “This isn’t inflation. This is currency devaluation,” Yusko told Cointelegraph Business Editor Sam Bourgi in an exclusive interview at the Bitcoin conference in Miami. Currency devaluation directly impacts consumers’ purchasing power, which refers to how many goods and services a unit of money can buy. Yusko was also asked about …

Ethereum's native token Ether (ETH) has dropped about 17% against the U.S. dollar in the last two weeks. But its performance against Bitcoin (BTC) has been less painful with the ETH/BTC pair down 4.5% over the same period. The pair's down-move appears as both ETH/USD and BTC/USD drop nearly in lockstep while reacting to the Federal Reserve's potential to hike rates by 50 basis points and slash its balance sheet by $95 billion per month. The latest numbers released today show that consumer prices rose 8.5% in March, the most since 1981. ETH/BTC triangle breakout Several technicals remain bullish despite …

On Monday, Bitcoin (BTC) dropped to $40,500, reaching a crucial level that erased the gains from the previous three weeks when the price peaked at $48,200 on March 28. According to analysts, the United States Federal Reserve balance sheet reductions are adding pressure to stocks and risk assets, with Bitcoin standing to lose appeal. Decentrader co-founder filbfilb agreed with these powerful headwinds by arguing that the Fed's action could influence the BTC price trend "for months to come." Bitcoin reacted unfavorably to a resurgent dollar, with the U.S. dollar currency index (DXY) returning above 100 for the first time since …