Bitcoin traded at $61,000 on July 3 following a worsening United States inflation outlook.
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView indicated BTC price strength slowly recovering from a 2% dip at the daily close.
This downturn led to local lows of $60,561 on Bitstamp, erasing gains from the weekend.
The mood deteriorated further as Jerome Powell, chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, spoke about the economy and monetary policy at an event in Portugal.
Powell explained that the Fed needed more convincing that conditions were right to lower interest rates, a key move being closely watched by crypto and risk asset bulls.
“We just want to understand that the levels that we’re seeing are a true reading on what is actually happening with underlying inflation,” Powell said, quoted by Reuters and others.
Markets slightly reduced the odds of a rate cut coming at the September meeting of the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), with the likelihood standing at around 65% at the time of writing, according to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.
“It’s clear that the Fed will continue their ‘meeting by meeting’ approach,” trading resource The Kobeissi Letter wrote on X.
“While markets are expecting 2 rate cuts this year, the Fed’s latest guidance says 1 cut is coming. The next few months are crucial.”
Bitcoin market participants watched with frustration as BTC/USD returned to the bottom of a familiar range.
READ MORE: Web2 Apps Will Enter A Brave New World In Web3, But How Can They Do It?
Popular trader Skew noted manipulative liquidity moves on exchanges via order “spoofing,” where overhead resistance was added and removed multiple times.
Spot demand on Binance, the largest global exchange, was at $60,000 “and lower,” he added.
Others noted that Bitcoin had filled the latest “gap” in CME futures, created by the weekend’s upside.
Charles Edwards, founder of quantitative Bitcoin and digital asset fund Capriole Investments, expressed concern over the latest BTC price action.
Markets, he argued, had not yet reconciled with the ongoing capitulation phase among miners, a phenomenon recently reported by Cointelegraph.
“Price has not yet reflected the onchain obliteration,” he warned X followers. “It doesn’t have to happen, time also heals all wounds, but Bitcoin is not patient.
Either we’re lucky, and price just consolidates between $60-70K for up to 2 months, or we puke and get a healthy overdue correction.”
To submit a crypto press release (PR), send an email to sales@cryptointelligence.co.uk.
