[Bitcoin Now] 9% Surge Despite SVB Crisis... Investor Sentiment 'Greed'

Despite the consecutive closures of banks including Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in the United States, the price of Bitcoin showed an increase of over 9%.

Image source=Reuters·Yonhap News

According to CoinMarketCap, a global virtual asset market status relay site, as of 9:01 AM on the 14th, the price of Bitcoin was recorded at $24,240 (approximately 31.48 million KRW), up 9.03% compared to the previous day. This is the first time since the 23rd of last month that it has surpassed the $24,000 level.

The price of Bitcoin had fallen below $20,000 due to Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell's hawkish remarks, the liquidation of Silvergate, a virtual asset-related bank, and the closure of SVB. However, the recent upward trend is interpreted as being driven by expectations that the Fed will not raise the benchmark interest rate at this month's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting due to the fallout from the bankruptcies of SVB and Signature Bank.

Earlier, the market widely expected that the Fed might accelerate the rate hike to a big step (a 0.5 percentage point increase in the benchmark interest rate) at this month's FOMC. However, as rapid rate hikes are causing damage not only to the real economy but also to the financial system, voices are growing that a return to big steps will not be easy.

There is also analysis that some investment groups, believing that the recent bank failures have exposed vulnerabilities in the central banking system, are leading the rise.

The Nasdaq index, which is centered on tech stocks that tend to move in sync with virtual asset prices, also closed higher. On the 13th (local time), the Nasdaq index closed at 11,188.84, up 49.96 points (0.45%).

Meanwhile, virtual asset investor sentiment improved to a level of greed. According to Alternative, a virtual asset data provider, the Fear & Greed Index, which expresses investor sentiment as an index, recorded 56 points (greed), up 7 points from 49 points (neutral) the previous day. Alternative’s Fear & Greed Index means that the closer the score is to 0, the more extreme fear and pessimism investors feel, and the closer it is to 100, the more optimistic they are.