What the numbers say: Bitcoin (BTC), the leading cryptocurrency by market cap, fell under the critical $25,000 level on June 14, down from the $26,000 level during the earlier hours of the day. Within the day, the popular cryptocurrency retreated to as much as $24,879, with an over 3% decline. The figure marked the first time Bitcoin fell under $25,000 in the last three months. The second-largest cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH), also experienced a similar price decline on the same day, decreasing by 5.5% in value from $1,727 to the $1,600 level. Relevance: The sharp price decline in leading cryptocurrencies came a couple of hours after the Federal Reserve (Fed), the central banking system of the U.S., announced a pause on interest-rate hikes for the first time in 15 months. The financial institution had carried out an aggressive interest rate hike policy for more than a year to ease inflation and lower it to its target of 2%. Most recently, the consumer price index (CPI) was announced as 4% for May in the U.S., the lowest rate of the last two years. Then, the Fed stated that it took a break from the interest-rate hiking campaign, keeping the rate at 5.25%. Bitcoin reacted to this move with a sharp price decline after holding around the $26,000 level over the past week despite the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) increased crackdown on major crypto exchanges, Binance and Coinbase. Brands that should care: Following the announcement, major crypto exchanges also saw a massive Bitcoin liquidation. On June 14, $41.21M of Bitcoin was liquidated in short and long positions combined from the leading crypto exchanges, up from the previous day's figure of $23.19M. Huobi, OKX, and Binance became the top three exchanges with the highest Bitcoin liquidations, and more than half of the total liquidation occurred in this trio. |
