On July 29, Bitcoin's price fluctuated amid global market reactions to an unexpected Iranian strike on a U.S. military base in Jordan and the Federal Reserve's decision to keep interest rates unchanged. Market data showed that after trading in a range of $63,500 to $64,000 on Tuesday afternoon and early Wednesday, Bitcoin jumped to $64,500 by 4:00 AM Eastern Standard Time (EST).
Although it soon pulled back slightly, the leading cryptocurrency established support around $64,000 for the next six hours. During this period, it twice surpassed the $64,500 threshold before beginning to decline. By 1:10 AM EST, Bitcoin had tumbled to just below $63,700, effectively erasing all gains made earlier that day. However, shortly thereafter, news broke that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) had voted to keep interest rates unchanged, and Bitcoin surged to $64,400 before stabilizing around $64,200 (2:20 PM EST).
This late rally resulted in Bitcoin's daily decline narrowing to 1%, increasing its market capitalization to $1.29 trillion. The modest uptick reduced Bitcoin's weekly losses to 2.5% and trimmed its 30-day gain to 6.6%. The relatively calm price action significantly reduced the scale of leveraged position liquidations over the past 24 hours.
Data from Coinglass showed that over $38 million was liquidated, with short positions accounting for $25 million of that amount. Across the broader crypto market, liquidation volume reached nearly $322 million, of which approximately $224 million came from long positions and $99 million from short positions.
Similar to traditional markets, Bitcoin and the crypto economy initially faced pressure from reports of renewed Middle East tensions. Reports of joint U.S. and Saudi airstrikes against armed groups based in Iraq reignited fears of the conflict escalating into a regional war. Consequently, crude oil prices, which had sharply declined after the U.S. and Iran paused strikes, surged over 6%, with Brent crude again surpassing the $90 per barrel mark.
However, U.S. markets shrugged off their initial caution as attention shifted from the Middle East conflict to the Federal Reserve, with investors preparing for monetary policy signals expected from this week's FOMC meeting. After the Fed delivered the widely anticipated and non-surprising decision, sentiment shifted dramatically: U.S. stocks rose, and the Nasdaq index showed a sharp rally that nearly completely offset earlier losses.
Nevertheless, despite Wednesday's Fed decision, the committee could still raise rates before year-end. For Bitcoin, this means that any price increase will likely depend on internal factors—such as institutional adoption, ETF inflows, or protocol upgrades—rather than broader favorable macroeconomic trends.
end-content
