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| Seen above is a three-month price chart of Bitcoin until July 20. Screen capture from CoinMarketCap |
By Lee Min-hyung
The prices of Bitcoin and Ethereum are on a solid recovery track on growing hopes for the U.S. Federal Reserve to slow down the pace of its monetary tightening as the year-end approaches.
Bitcoin bounced back to the 30 million mark ($22,800) Wednesday for the first time in more than a month. This is an increase of 22 percent from this year's low of 25.16 million won in mid-June when the market sentiment dipped to the lowest ebb amid a series of crypto bank-run scandals from market players.
Ethereum also displayed resilience. The world's second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization soared above 2 million won on the same day. This is also an outstanding rebound from its earlier plunge on the first week of July when its value tumbled to around 1.4 million won.
Crypto experts here and abroad expect the market to have recently reached close to a bottom amid woes of a recession and global monetary tightening. But this will take a gradual turn for the better later this year when the Fed and the Bank of Korea are expected to show gestures to control the pace of rate hikes.
"Expectations will grow that the cycle of monetary tightening will finish around the end of this year," Lee Mi-sun of Bithumb's research center said. But the expert left open the possibility that the major cryptocurrencies may keep facing downward pressure for some time due to lingering fears on the Fed's rate hikes.
The Fed is widely forecast to take a giant step by hiking its key rate by 75 basis points next week.
Some other analysts remained neutral in their viewpoint over the rebound of the overall crypto market.
"Not only is the broader market environment not in its favor, even if the occasional bear-market rally inspires some hope, but the crypto community isn't exactly buzzing either," said Craig Erlam senior market analyst at OANDA. "There's an acceptance that the downturn will continue for some time."
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