Bitcoin (BTC) passed $29,500 on October 20 after an eventful 24 hours boosted BTC price trajectory while XRP price jumped above $0.50 in response to Ripple’s big legal victory.
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Hawkish Fed’s Powell fails to dent BTC price
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it neared two-month highs from the start of the week.
The largest cryptocurrency seemed to be fueled by events surrounding a speech by Jerome Powell, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, the previous day.
In the midst of a US bond debacle, Powell was under pressure to deliver appropriate wording, and analysis even predicted that a “very appropriate” tone would prevail. In the event, the speech, which was briefly interrupted by protesters, saw Powell very conservative in outlook.
“The stance of policy is restrictive, meaning tight policy puts downward pressure on economic activity and inflation,” he said of interest rate hikes.
“Given the rapid pace of the tightening, there may still be significant tension in the pipeline.”
Powell said the Fed acknowledged the potential problems of hiking rates too far.
“Doing too little could allow over-targeted inflation to take root and ultimately require monetary policy to pull more permanent inflation out of the economy at a high cost to employment. Doing too much could also do unnecessary damage to the economy,” he continued.
“Given the uncertainties and risks, and how far we’ve come, the Committee is proceeding with caution.”
Data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool showed shifting tides among market expectations when it comes to future rate decisions.
At its next meeting on November 1, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is now unanimously considering keeping rates at their current levels, according to data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool. Before Powell, odds stood at 88%.
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After the speech, news broke that US regulators dropped criminal charges against executives from Blockchain company Ripple.
XRP price responded immediately, trading up more than 6% in 24 hours at the time of writing.
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A trader suggests that a Bitcoin “momentum” is here
Amid a background of growing expectation over approval of a US Bitcoin spot price exchange-traded fund (ETF), Bitcoin gained momentum overnight.
Related: Bitcoin metrics ‘improve bullish odds’ as BTC price holds 200-week trend line
At the time of writing, the day’s highs stood at $29,689 – just $200 from the top of a fast volatile wick seen on October 17.
$BTC launched
Keeping it as simple as it can get:
Likewise 26.8k was the origin of our last impulse, 28.6k is now the origin of the current one. On top of that, we go MUCH higher, FAST.
Fall below 28.6k and the local uptrend will be violated and we might get some… pic.twitter.com/CbhLBo133G
– CrediBULL Crypto (@CredibleCrypto) October 20, 2023
“Bitcoin filling the wick, slowly but surely. Let’s go for that $30k tap,” popular trader Jelle wrote in part of X analysis on the day, previously arguing that Bitcoin looked “eager to fill” the October 17 wick.
“Today is going to be a very interesting day for trading… They reached exactly $29400 where there were many liquidations,” fellow trader CrypNuevo. continued.
In various X posts, CrytpNuevo uploaded liquidity data from the past few days, warnings that long positions were outnumbered short four to one. Bitcoin, he suggested, could pull back during the US trading session.
Liquid levels and liquid heat maps.
Quick thoughts:
– All our liquidity levels to the top of yesterday have been affected.
– Delta long liquidations at $15B (a medium-high amount and enough to consider a trail coming soon).
– Current long-short open positions… pic.twitter.com/dAqbRbaimc— CrypNuevo (@CrypNuevo) October 20, 2023
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