Bitcoin drifts into weekly close while Fed rate hike looms as next major BTC price trigger

cointelegraph.com:

Bitcoin (BTC) upped the volatility into the weekly close on March 13 as markets braced for geopolitical and macro economic cues.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it again came close to testing $38,000 support during Sunday.

The pair had seen a quiet end to the week on Wall Street, the weekend proving similarly calm as the status quo both within and outside crypto continued without surprises.

Now, attention was already focusing beyond Sunday's close, specifically on the upcoming decision on interest rates from the United States Federal Reserve.

Due March 16, the extent of the presumed rate hike could provide temporary volatility and even a longer-lasting trend change for risk assets, depending on its size.

The situation between Russian and Ukraine likewise remained a major focus, amid faint signs that consensus between negotiators could be coming sooner rather than later.

For monitoring resource Material Indicators, the Bitcoin chart showed spot price between the 50-week and 100-week moving average (WMA), prior to the Fed's decision.

"BTC price continues to range between the 50 & 100 WMA," it summarized to Twitter followers on the day.

Popular trader and analyst Crypto Ed meanwhile described the weekend's action as "slow" amid an absence of significant support or resistance retests, while fellow analyst Matthew Hyland likened Bitcoin's behavior to "watching paint dry."

For stocks, however, it was a welcome rest from another week of heavy comedowns.

Global stocks have lost another $2.5tn in mkt cap this week as investors have been positioning around developments in #Ukraine, #stagflation fears, a hawkish tilt from #ECB, and ahead of next week's FOMC meeting. Global equities now worth $107.5tn