Leading cryptocurrencies remained choppy on Thursday as the countdown to the widely anticipated interest rate cut began.

What Happened: Bitcoin wiggled in the narrow range between $57,700 and $58,400, showing no clear directional bias.  Similarly, Ethereum dropped to $2,300 during early trading before clawing back to $2,350 overnight. 

The market remained calm, with liquidations reaching just over $63 million in the last 24 hours. Nearly equal numbers of upside and downside bets got wiped out.

Former President Donald Trump announcing the launch date of his cryptocurrency project failed to have any meaningful impact on the market.

Bitcoin’s funding rate was negative on top cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance and Bybit, indicating the dominance of bearishly leveraged traders.

This was further exemplified by the significant dip in the Long/Short Ratio for the cryptocurrency.

Top Gainers (24-Hours)

The global cryptocurrency market stood at $2.04 trillion, following an increase of 0.46% in the last 24 hours.

Stocks closed another day in the green. The S&P 500 rose 0.75% to end at 5,595.76. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 1% to close at 17,569.68. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lifted 235.06 points, or 0.58%, to finish at 41,096.77.

Investors weighed in August’s producer inflation data, which showed a sharper-than-anticipated slowdown in the headline producer price index while core inflation remained stable. 

Thursday’s report followed the consumer price index data, revealing an increase in core prices. 

Investors now estimate a 59% chance of a 25-basis-point rate drop at next week’s FOMC meeting, while expectations of an aggressive 50-basis-point rate cut have risen to 41%, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

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Analyst Notes: Prominent analytics firm Santiment noted a jump in bullish Bitcoin commentary over the past week, with the ratio of positive mentions more than twice the number of negative for the first time in more than a year.

Santiment interpreted the high FOMO as “concerning,” implying a market peak.

“When the crowd begins conveying doubt again, BTC will truly begin testing its March all-time high market values,” the on-chain researcher said.

Widely-followed cryptocurrency analyst and trader Ali Martinez drew attention to Bitcoin’s extended move below its 200-day moving average.

“BTC has now been below this key level, at $64,000, for over a month, hinting at a potential drop towards its realized price of $31,500!” Martinez projected.

Photo courtesy: Shutterstock

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