A sense of fear is creeping up in the cryptocurrency market as investors focused on the upcoming Federal Reserve decision. The closely-watched crypto fear and greed index has crashed from the extreme greed zone of over 80 to the neutral phase of 58.
This price action happened as the price of Bitcoin remained in a tight range between $70,000 and $60,000 and other altcoins like Solana, Avalanche (AVAX), and Cronos (CRO) have all plunged hard recently. Still, there are some positive signs, with BitBot raising over $3 million in its token sale.
Federal Reserve decision ahead
Bitcoin and other altcoins have retreated sharply ahead of this week’s interest rate decision. Economists expect that the bank will continue with its hawkish tone in this meeting since inflation has remained stubbornly high.
Data released this month revealed that the headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to 3.5% in March while core CPI jumped to 3.8%. A separate report released last week showed that the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) rose to 2.5% while core PCE jumped to 2.8%.
These numbers mean that inflation has remained stubbornly high and is above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2.0%. There are signs that inflation will remain higher for longer now that the price of crude oil and industrial metals continued rising.
Further, the prices of key services like rent and insurance have continued to rise in the past few months. Therefore, there is a likelihood that the Federal Reserve will point to higher rates for longer.
In most cases, risky assets like Bitcoin, Solana, and Avalanche tend to retreat when the Fed has embraced a hawkish tone. For one, such tone, when other central banks are thinking of cutting interest rates, will push to a higher US dollar.
BitBot token sale continues
Meanwhile, BitBot has continued its token sale, raising over $3 million, signaling that there is strong demand for newer coins.
BitBot is a platform that seeks to disrupt the trading and investing industry. It is building a trading bot that will help traders profitably execute trades. BitBot’s technology is based on technical analysis and artificial intelligence (AI).
The bot will be distributed in Telegram, an app that is used by more than 900 million users a month. This is a big industry that is growing at a fast pace as it has helped to facilitate over $19…