Weekly Overview of Events in the World of Cryptocurrencies and Finance: Bitcoin, the Fed, and Mining Difficulty
Date: 2023-09-24 Author: Dima Zakharov Categories: IN WORLD
Weekly Recap: The Fed Maintains Key Rate, While Bitcoin Fails to Hold Above $27,000
The past week has been eventful with news and events impacting global financial markets. One of the key events was the decline in the price of Bitcoin, which failed to sustain levels above $27,000. This threshold was considered psychologically important for investors, and its unsuccessful breach became a subject of intense debate.
Throughout the week, Bitcoin's prices fluctuated actively, and while they briefly surpassed the $27,000 mark on Monday, there were several subsequent declines. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $26,600. These fluctuations are influenced by various factors, including regulatory measures, market news, and changes in mining.
Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Reaches an All-Time High
One of the factors affecting Bitcoin's dynamics is mining difficulty. A recent adjustment resulted in a 5.48% increase in mining difficulty. This means that miners now face greater challenges in generating new Bitcoin blocks, requiring them to invest more computational power. The difficulty metric has reached an all-time high, standing at 57.12 T.
The average hash rate, which measures the overall computational power of the Bitcoin network, remains at 423.22 EH/s. This indicates high miner activity despite the increased difficulty. It's important to note that the average time between blocks is 9.5 minutes, signaling network stability.
The U.S. Federal Reserve Maintains the Key Rate
Global financial markets were also influenced by the decision of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) to maintain the key interest rate at 5.25–5.5% per annum. While this decision was expected, it still had an impact on investors and markets.
The Fed pointed to a high level of inflation in the U.S., low unemployment, and stable economic growth. The regulator also expressed its commitment to achieving maximum employment and 2% inflation in the long term. These factors support the Fed's decision to maintain the key rate and continue its monetary policy aimed at economic stability.
Cryptocurrency Market Overview
The total cryptocurrency market capitalization currently stands at less than $1.1 trillion, with Bitcoin's dominance index at 50.1%. This underscores Bitcoin's continued status as the most significant cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
Among other top-10 cryptocurrencies by market cap, XRP and Solana (SOL) saw gains of 2.6%, while Ethereum (ETH) and Binance Coin (BNB) experienced losses of 2.4% and 2%, respectively. These fluctuations are linked to the overall volatility of the cryptocurrency market and external factors, including regulatory developments and events in global markets.
