[Bitcoin Now] Steadfast Despite Fed's Hawkish Stance... Briefly Recovers to $18,000

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Myunghwan Lee] The price of Bitcoin, the representative virtual asset, is moving at a similar price range as the previous day despite the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) reaffirming its tightening stance.

According to the global virtual asset market tracking site CoinMarketCap as of 10:51 a.m. on the 15th, the price of Bitcoin was recorded at $17,703 (approximately 23.04 million KRW), down 0.45% from the previous day. Around 3 a.m. on the same day, Bitcoin's price surged to $18,303 (approximately 23.78 million KRW), returning to the $18,000 level for the first time since the FTX bankruptcy incident.

Bitcoin's price shows little volatility despite the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) displaying a hawkish stance at the FOMC. On this day, the Fed implemented a 'big step' rate hike, raising the benchmark interest rate by 0.50 percentage points to 4.25%?4.50%. This increase is smaller compared to the 'giant steps' of 0.75 percentage points hikes in the previous four meetings.

However, as Fed Chair Jerome Powell hinted at continuing rate hikes next year, major U.S. stock indices, which tend to move in tandem with Bitcoin prices, closed lower. On the 14th (local time), the Nasdaq index, focused on technology stocks, closed at 11,170.89, down 0.76% (85.93 points) from the previous trading day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.42% (142.29 points) to 33,966.35, and the S&P 500 index dropped 0.61% (24.33 points) to 3,995.32.

At a press conference following the FOMC meeting, Chair Powell emphasized, "We will not consider cutting rates until we see clear evidence that inflation is definitely coming down," adding, "We need considerably more evidence to be confident that the inflation rate has entered a sustained downward path."

Investor sentiment in virtual assets is reviving day by day. According to the virtual asset data provider Alternative, the Fear & Greed Index, which expresses investor sentiment as an index, rose by 1 point from the previous day to 31 points (fear) on this day. This is 6 points higher than last week's 25 points. Alternative's Fear & Greed Index means that the closer the score is to 0, the more extreme fear investors feel, and the closer it is to 100, the more optimistic they are about investing.