Bitcoin, Ethereum Technical Analysis: BTC, ETH Remain Near Multi-Month Lows Following Fed Rate Hike

Ethereum dropped below $1,300 on Thursday, as markets continued to react to the U.S. Fed's latest decision to raise interest rates. Following speculation of a 100-basis-point hike, the Federal Reserve hiked rates by 0.75%, as it continues to struggle against rising consumer prices. Bitcoin also declined, moving close to the $18,000 level.

Timeline of Bitcoin, Ethereum

According to a report from Whale Alert, over 43,000 BTC ($820m) has moved from Huobi's wallet to Binance. However, Huobi has responded by saying that it is the internal flow of funds due to normal user withdrawals.

Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) has no shortage of supporters in the Web3 world, but the award for “most unexpected endorsement” goes to Greenpeace for endorsing Ethereum based on the Merge which moves it to a more environmentally friendly Proof-of-Stake (POS) validation system vs. the original Proof-of-Work (POW) system.

The overall crypto market is under a bearish pull where the majority of the cryptocurrencies are trading below their crucial levels. Amidst such pump and dump a well-known crypto analyst and trader claims Bitcoin is still under the buy zone.

Billionaire Mike Novogratz is predicting Ethereum (ETH) is near the bottom after its successful merge upgrade earlier this month. In a new CNBC interview, the CEO of Galaxy Digital praises the Ethereum merge and makes a bottom price prediction, while also ruling out a “catastrophic fall” in the price of Bitcoin (BTC).

The ongoing race among central banks to lift rates and support their currencies to keep inflation under check suggests the path of least resistance for risk assets is to the downside.

Bitcoin price managed to stay above the $18,500 support zone. BTC is currently (11:00 UTC) trading above $19,000. However, the price is still facing a couple of major hurdles near $19,500 and $19,600.

MicroStrategy chairman and co-founder Michael Saylor reckons Bitcoin has hit the price floor and is ready for its journey to all-time highs of US$68,990 in the next four years. But that's peanuts compared to where it's going in a decade; speaking to MarketWatch editor-in-chief Mark DeCambre on Wednesday, Saylor suggested a price point of US$500,000 is not totally unreasonable.

Bitcoin immediately felt the impact of Wednesday's Federal Reserve interest rate increase and failed to gain upward traction. Other macroeconomic variables also contributed to the decline of the world's leading cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum and other significant cryptocurrencies.

The Federal Reserve's interest rate hike by 75bps has majorly impacted the crypto market as once the results were announced, the already bearish market saw another leg down. The world's first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, which had managed to regain the $19,000 level, has now yet again dropped to around the $18,000 area.

A popular crypto analyst known for calling the Bitcoin (BTC) May 2021 collapse says BTC is still in the “buy zone” despite the sputtering market. The pseudonymous trader known as Dave the Wave tells his 126,600 Twitter followers that Bitcoin is in an extended sideways range within the buy zone.