By
Steve Muchoki
May 6th, 2024
With the Federal Reserve refusing to back down on its rate hikes, investors are beginning to turn to risk-on assets to safeguard any potential fallout from hawkish monetary policies.
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has been impressing investors with its recent performance which saw it breach the $30,000 resistance for the first time since June 2022. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is now changing hands at a price of $30,097.78, up by 6.42% over the past 24 hours according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Bitcoin’s parabolic growth thus far this year has been somewhat like an enigma. The year opens with the scare of the fallout from the bankruptcy of FTX Derivatives Exchange, a move that had a significant impact on both Genesis Trading and the Gemini Exchange. The exposure of Genesis to FTX was projected to stir a depletion in the price of Bitcoin held under custody by Grayscale Investments, another subsidiary of Genesis’ parent company, the Digital Currency Group (DCG).
Despite these legitimate fears, Bitcoin has remained resilient and its price has printed a steady uptrend from the start of the year to date. Riding on its resilience thus far, the digital currency is now up by more than 82% in the Year-to-Date (YTD) period. In the past month, the asset has printed a 72.80% growth, showcasing steady growth across the board.
The correlation of the mainstream stock market with Bitcoin is more evident and has been tapped as one of the major factors to watch in order to understand the coin’s price actions.
“It’s clear that the market is pricing a slowdown in growth, and in turn a loosening of monetary policy by the Federal Reserve over the course of 2023,” said Richard Mico, the US CEO, and chief legal officer of Banxa, a payment-and-compliance infrastructure provider for crypto. “For evidence of this, just look at the bond market.”
With the Federal Reserve refusing to back down on its rate hikes, investors are beginning to turn to risk-on assets to safeguard any potential fallout from hawkish monetary policies.
Bitcoin Price and Imminent Economic Fallout
Part of the mishaps that befell the biggest market landscape this year was the collapse of several regional banks including Silvergate Bank, Signature Bank, and Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Many experts attributed some of the reasons for these collapses to the Fed’s rate hikes that fueled a liquidity crunch that brought down the banks.
Though it appears the winds of related mishaps have passed, market analysts believe a continuous interest rate hike, even though it is the 25 basis points hike being embraced of recently, will do more harm than good for businesses in the long run.
Higher rates might even push the economy into a recession, a pivot that will spell a good omen for the nascent asset class as more funds will flow in from investors who wish to keep the value of their assets from inflation.
Bitcoin is still a far ride away from retesting its All-Time High (ATH), however, with the current price trend, the chances this milestone will be achieved in the near term appear high.