Crypto News– The largest cryptocurrency in the world, by market capitalization, fell below the $60,000 mark, even as the bitcoin mining halving draws nearer.
Bitcoin Value Drops Below 60,000 Dollars Amid Powell’s Remarks Ahead of Halving
According to The Block’s Price page for bitcoin, Bitcoin dropped to $59,889 around 12:00 p.m. ET on April 17. However, it rebounded to just over $60,300 at 1:05 p.m. ET on the same day, marking a decrease of $2,423, or 3.9%, in the past 24 hours.
Liquidations in the perpetual futures market surged to $15.54 million between 12:00 p.m. ET and 1:00 p.m. ET on April 17. Long liquidations accounted for about $8.4 million, while short liquidations totaled $6.02 million. Over the span of 24 hours, liquidations amounted to $214.28 million across 67,301 traders, as reported by the crypto data tracker CoinGlass.
Federal Reserve Remarks
Bitcoin’s decline in price initiated following remarks from the Federal Reserve chair indicating that interest rates are unlikely to decrease in the near future. During a Washington forum on Tuesday, Jerome Powell, Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank, stated that the U.S. central bank probably won’t achieve its 2% inflation target in the foreseeable future.
As reported by Reuters, Powell stated, Right now, given the strength of the labor market and progress on inflation so far, it’s appropriate to allow restrictive policy further time to work and let the data and the evolving outlook guide us.
Bitcoin halving
The upcoming bitcoin halving, anticipated on April 19, will reduce mining rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. This marks the fourth bitcoin halving since the network’s inception in 2009, serving as a mechanism to manage the token’s supply and uphold its scarcity. The halving event takes place approximately every 210,000 blocks, which represent sequential units of data containing transaction history within a blockchain network.
According to The Block’s bitcoin halving countdown, as of 1:34 p.m. ET on April 17, the next bitcoin halving is 336 blocks away. The previous halving occurred on May 11, 2020.
Leave a comment