Once again, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) has risen past the critical $40,000 price barrier, climbing as high as $41,400 before reversing course on March 16.
Indeed, the price of bitcoin increased from $38,550 to $41,465 in less than 5 hours, representing an almost $3,000 rise in value. Bitcoin’s market cap increased by up to $55 billion over this period before easing up.
The flagship digital asset is currently trading at $40,469, up 5% in the last 24 hours and following an inflow of $36 billion to take the BTC’s total market capitalization to $768 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
BTC 1-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap
Bitcoin seen as a store of value among some
At 2:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on March 16, the United States Federal Reserve is expected to announce interest rate changes, which many are anticipating as a possible price paradigm changer.
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Even while the market is suspected of having already factored in the projected 0.25% rate rise, to some observers, it is clear that this would do little to alleviate the effects of macro inflationary dynamics, which itself may promote Bitcoin as a store of value.
In a statement earlier this month, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced that the central bank intends to raise its policy interest rate by a quarter percentage point after the completion of its March meeting in order to combat inflation, which rose to a 40-year high in February.
According to DailyFX analyst Nicholas Cawley, global geopolitical crises are producing protracted economic uncertainty.
“The Federal Reserve is expected to increase interest rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday and while this is seen as a negative for BTC, the markets have known about this hike for a few weeks now and have priced it in accordingly,” he said.
Whales wait patiently for further developments
Elsewhere, according to behavior analysis platform Santiment, whale transactions on Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether have plummeted, with the cumulative total of transactions worth over $100,000 or more have reached their lowest level in a year.
BTC, ETH, Tether whale transactions. Source: Santiment However, the fact that significant players are waiting for additional developments in the war and with inflation is not necessarily a bearish indicator as they wait to gauge the sentiment in the market.
