Bitcoin Dips Below $60K as Pre-Halving Volatility Reigns

Bitcoin (BTC) last traded below $60,000 on March 5, an event which occurred before the cryptocy surged to new all-time highs in the following days. BTC hit an all-time high of $73,780 on March 13 and has seen continued volatility since that time.

Some market-watchers have pointed to macroeconomic factors for the volatility around bitcoin, like persistent inflation in the United States. Traditional equities, too, are in the red today, according to MarketWatch, with the S&P, Dow and Nasdaq trading down as of 12:25 pm ET. 

As Blockworks’ Casey Wagner reported in today’s Empire newsletter, the macro picture is a complicated one — and will likely remain so given that Fed Chair Jerome Powell has indicated that long-signaled rate cuts will take longer than anticipated. 

“The recent data have clearly not given us greater confidence, and instead indicate that it’s likely to take longer than expected to achieve that confidence,” Powell said Tuesday during a press conference.

The timing of today’s price decline is also notable because bitcoin is set to undergo a transaction reward halving this weekend. The number of new bitcoins produced per block will fall from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. The halving is expected to occur late Friday or early Saturday ET, according to estimates. 

Ethereum’s native asset (ETH) accompanied bitcoin in its own brief dip below a key level. According to TradingView, ETH dropped to a local low of $2,914 before recovering somewhat. At the time of writing, ETH is trading at around $2,965.