Markets
Assured Spot Ether ETF Approval Fails to Boost Crypto Market Collapse
Cryptocurrency markets remained under pressure during U.S. trading hours on Thursday, extending a decline that began the day before when the Federal Reserve indicated it planned to cut rates just once this year.
Ether (ETH) saw a mid-morning rebound after U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler told a Senate hearing that he expects spot ETFs to on the ether would receive full approval from his agency by the end of summer. This news briefly caused ether to rise 1%, but the gain was short-lived. The price reversed more than 3% in an hour and was trading at $3,440 at press time, down 5% in the last 24 hours. The broader CoinDesk 20 index fell 4.9% over the same period.
Bitcoin (BTC) also fell nearly 5%, trading near a one-week low of $66,300.
Markets turned negative Wednesday afternoon following the Federal Reserve’s hawkish policy meeting. The U.S. central bank kept its benchmark federal funds rate range between 5.25% and 5.50%, but updated its projections to suggest a single 25 basis point rate cut in 2024. In contrast , the rate futures markets anticipated two to three cuts of 25 basis points. This year.
Thursday morning’s US economic data, indicating a continued slowdown in inflation and the economy, failed to improve the macro mood in the crypto space. The May producer price index (PPI) fell 0.2% against an expected rise of 0.1%. On an annual basis, the PPI increased by 2.2% compared to forecasts of 2.5%. Additionally, initial jobless claims hit a nearly one-year high of 242,000, compared to an expected 225,000.
“$66,000 seems like a balance,” said well-followed analyst Skew in an article on bullish. This includes improving inflation data, a pro-Bitcoin presidential favorite in Donald Trump, ETH Spot ETF approvals and other risk asset markets, such as US stocks, reaching new all-time highs.
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