Bitcoin price traded flat amid the final countdown to the much-anticipated Ethereum Merge
Bitcoin price was little changed while most of the crypto top ten by market capitalization rose, edging the entire crypto market cap back above $1 trillion. At the time of writing, BTC is changing hands at $20,082.
BTC/USD 4-hour chart | Source: TradingView
Bitcoin price little changed; Ether, Eth Classic lead gains ahead of the Merge
A day after worrying inflation figures sent risk assets downward, bitcoin held fast above $20,000. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was recently trading at about $20,100, roughly where it stood 24 hours earlier as investors continued to chew on the latest inflation figures and potential actions by the U.S. central bank at its Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting next week. The FOMC seems likely to boost interest rates by 75 basis points for a third consecutive time, although the prospects of a 100-point hike rose to over 30%.
“After a brutal CPI report on disappointing inflation news Tuesday, Bitcoin fell alongside the S&P 500’s biggest daily drop in two years. The correlation between the sectors remains high, and crypto typically thrives best with zero equity reliance”, Santiment reported.
BTC is down 58% year to date and approximately 70% below its all-time high of $68,721.93. Markets slumped Wednesday after the August Consumer Price Index in the U.S., a key inflation measure, rose 0.1% month-on-month when the market had expected a decline.
Ether rose outperformed bitcoin and was recently trading over $1,600, a more than 2% gain in the final hours before the hotly anticipated Merge, the technological overhaul to a proof-of-stake protocol that promises to be faster and more energy efficient than its proof-of-work predecessor.
Most other cryptos by market cap spent much of Wednesday in the green with ETC and LINK up more than 8% and 3%, respectively. ETC was recently trading at about $38, an approximately 30% gain from late last month and nearly three times its price in mid-July. The shift in Ethereum’s consensus mechanism has motivated network participants to refocus on ETC, the native token of Ethereum Class, created in 2016 when Ethereum’s blockchain split into two separate chains. Cardano gained 3.8% to change hands at $0.48 while Solana was up 3.2% at $34.09.
The total market cap gained 1.4% to sit just over $1 trillion after falling below that point for much of yesterday. The overall cryptocurrency market cap stands at $989 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 38.9%.
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