Hassan Maishera
TL;DR
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Bitcoin briefly dropped below $63k on Thursday as the inflation report dimmed hopes of a rate cut this year.
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BTC is now trading above $64k after recovering from the dip.
BTC Dipped as Rate Cuts Seem Unlikely
Bitcoin, the world’s leading cryptocurrency by market cap, briefly dropped below the $63k mark on Thursday. The poor performance came following an inflation report in the United States.
The U.S. government's preliminary report for Q1 2024 GDP showed growth of just 1.6%. The growth was lower than the 2.5% analysts estimated and down from the 3.4% recorded in the last quarter of 2023.
The disappointing inflation report meant that the likelihood of the US Federal Reserve cutting interest rates this year grew smaller. This report saw BTC and other major risk assets recording losses on Thursday.
BTC briefly traded around the $62,900 region following the report. However, it has since bounced back and is now trading above $64k per coin once again. At press time, BTC is trading at $64,102, down by less than 1% in the last 24 hours.
Altcoins are experiencing a mixed performance in the market, with some in the green zone while others are down. Solana and Ton are the worst performers amongst the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap, losing more than 2% of their values over the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, NEAR and BONK outperformed the other cryptocurrencies in the top 100 list, adding 10% to their values respectively. With the market’s mixed performance, the total cryptocurrency market cap has dipped to $2.36 trillion, down by less than 1%.
