(Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin retreated from the highest levels of the day after the Federal Reserve signaled additional tightening while increasing interest rates, making risk assets potentially less attractive to investors.
“Rates going higher will strangle equity markets. So if we see a mass exodus out of risk assets, it’ll weigh on everything,” said Joel Kruger, a strategist at crypto exchange LMAX Digital. He said a hawkish Fed could push Bitcoin down to $20,000. “New lows in stocks could contribute to a decline in crypto assets.”
The largest digital asset by market value was little changed after earlier climbing as much as 5.7% to $41,691. Other tokens such as Ethereum and Solana were also little changed. Bitcoin is down about 14% this year.
Policy makers led by Chair Jerome Powell voted 8-1 to lift their key rate to a target range of 0.25% to 0.5%, the first increase since 2018, after two years of holding borrowing costs near zero to insulate the economy from the pandemic.
A sustained rally is unlikely while the Fed tightens through the year, billionaire cryptocurrency investor Michael Novogratz who heads Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. said Tuesday during a TV interview on Bloomberg Crypto. Bitcoin is likely to stay in a range of $30,000 to $50,000 in an environment of rising interest rates, he said.
In the Fed’s so-called dot plot, officials’ median projection was for the benchmark rate to end 2022 at about 1.9% -- in line with traders’ bets but higher than previously anticipated -- and then rise to about 2.8% in 2023. They estimated a 2.8% rate in 2024, the final year of the forecasts.
Bitcoin had spent the past few days mired in the tightest trading range since October 2020, a phenomenon some market watchers ascribed to long-term holders stepping in to buy whenever the token dips. Meanwhile, selling by short-term investors has kept Bitcoin and other digital assets from mounting sustainable gains.
“Whenever we see stock market relief, crypto tends to do well, especially lately,” said Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst at London-based digital asset broker GlobalBlock. “At the end of the day, the key driving force behind prices is macro, so I expect a struggle for a sustainable uptick.”
Read more: Bitcoin Is Stuck in Tightest Range Since 2020 as Markets Gyrate
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