According to Fixygen, the cryptocurrency market is ending the week on a down note: Bitcoin has once again fallen below the psychological $60,000 level, Ether has approached $1,550, and most major altcoins are trading under pressure amid capital outflows from crypto ETFs, harsher expectations regarding Fed interest rates, and a strengthening dollar.
As of Thursday and Friday, Bitcoin was trading around $59,200, down approximately 3% over the past 24 hours.
The intraday low was around $58,200. Ether fell to $1,550, losing about 5.5% over the day, while Solana held steady around $68–69.
The week marked a continuation of June’s weak performance. Earlier this month, Bitcoin was trading above $70,000, but the market then faced a series of negative factors: record or near-record outflows from U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs, growing investor interest in stocks of companies related to artificial intelligence, a strengthening U.S. dollar, and deteriorating sentiment surrounding major corporate Bitcoin holders.
This week, the pressure intensified after Bitcoin once again fell below $60,000. CoinDesk noted that the cryptocurrency’s decline is occurring even amid periodic gains in other risky assets, as capital continues to flow into the technology and AI segments of the stock market. According to CoinDesk, Deutsche Bank attributed Bitcoin’s drop below $60,000 to the Fed’s hawkish rhetoric, outflows from ETFs, and concerns surrounding companies with high Bitcoin exposure.
Ethereum has also failed to serve as a safe-haven asset within the crypto market. Trading at around $1,550, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization remains under pressure alongside the broader market. The decline in ether indicates that investors are currently reducing their exposure to crypto assets in general, not just bitcoin.
Solana appeared slightly more resilient intraday, but the overall sentiment for altcoins remains weak. When Bitcoin falls below key levels, investors typically reduce their positions in riskier tokens faster than in the market’s core assets.
The dynamics of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. remain a separate factor. In June, the market already experienced several waves of outflows from funds that had previously been one of the main sources of demand for Bitcoin. When ETFs stop supporting the market with inflows, Bitcoin becomes more sensitive to macroeconomic data, yields, the dollar, and overall risk appetite.
Globally, cryptocurrencies are now competing for capital not only with traditional assets but also with the AI sector. Reuters previously noted that investors are increasingly shifting funds toward AI-related stocks and anticipated major IPOs, while bitcoin is experiencing one of its weakest starts to the year in the past decade.
Through the end of the week, the key technical level for Bitcoin remains the $58,000–$60,000 range. Holding this range could give the market a chance to stabilize, but a sustained move below $58,000 would reinforce expectations of a further decline. In this case, the next area of focus could be $55,000, which some analysts view as a potential level for a local bottom to form.
The base case scenario for the coming days is heightened volatility and cautious attempts at stabilization following the sharp decline. For a sustained recovery, the market will need a combination of several factors: an end to outflows from ETFs, a weaker dollar, softer expectations regarding Fed interest rates, and a return of risk appetite for crypto assets.
For now, the crypto market remains in defensive trade mode: investors prefer to reduce their exposure, cut their losses, or wait for new signals from ETF flows and the U.S. macroeconomy.
The bitcoin exchange rate exceeds $20,000 during trading on Tuesday, having reached a maximum value in more than a week, but cannot break through the narrow trading range indicated after the cryptocurrency’s sharp fall this summer.
The price of bitcoin, as of 13:40 Kyiv time, rose by 5.69% compared to the closing level of previous trading and amounted to $20.223 thousand.
Bitcoin has been fluctuating between $18,000 and $25,000 since mid-June, following a crash in the crypto market that has depreciated nearly $2 trillion since its peak in November last year, CNBC writes.
The decline in the market was caused by an increase in interest rates by the central banks of the world, aimed at combating high inflation, and a wave of bankruptcies and debt problems that swept through companies in the cryptocurrency sector.
Crypto investors are keeping an eye on changes in monetary policy as cryptocurrencies have been closely linked to the US stock market this year. Rising interest rates put pressure on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, which spilled over to other risky assets, including cryptocurrencies.
This time, the rise in the cryptocurrency market, which began on Monday, is at odds with the dynamics of the stock market. American stocks continued to fall on Monday, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended trading in the bearish trend zone (that is, it fell 20% or more from the last peak) for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
However, futures for US indices showed an increase on Tuesday, indicating that stocks may start to win back on the mood of investors to buy on the fall.
The rate of Ether (Ether) rose by 4.79% to $1388.50. On September 15, a cryptocurrency software update dubbed The Merge was activated. The update switched the Ethereum blockchain to a new algorithm, which should drastically reduce the consumption of electricity during mining.
The bitcoin rate on Monday fell to its lowest level in more than a month, ether (Ether) – below $ 3,000.
The pressure on the cryptocurrency market is exerted by the general risk aversion of investors, as well as signals of restrained demand from new investors, Bloomberg notes.
As of 1:45 p.m., the bitcoin rate retreated 3.05% to $39,058. Earlier in the session, it fell below $39,000.
The exchange rate of ether fell by 4.2% to $2916.6.
Technical analysis shows that despite bitcoin’s recent drop, the cryptocurrency is “not yet close to oversold levels” and the nearest support level of $35,000 is likely not to hold, said 22V Research analyst John Rock.
“We remain confident that bitcoin will drop to $30,000,” the expert says.
The cost of bitcoin has fallen by 5% over the past month, and by almost 16% since the beginning of the year.
The capitalization of the global cryptocurrency market, according to CoinGecko, has decreased by 4% over the past 24 hours, to $1.9 trillion.
