Crypto prices fall in anticipation of Peloi’s potential Taiwan visit

Towards the end of July, things seemed to be looking up for crypto.

After being stuck around the $20,000 range since mid-June, Bitcoin, which makes up 41% of the crypto market, jumped above $24,000 last week in a rally after the Fed announced it would raise interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point for others. time in two months.

But by Tuesday, that rally had clearly faded as Bitcoin traded down 3% to around $22,753 in the 24 hours from early Tuesday – its third day of losses. Ethereum, the second most popular crypto, fell even more, posting a 6.4% decline to around $1,574 in 24 hours in what was also the third day of mostly downward movement, according to CoinMarketCap.

Macroeconomic factors appear to be driving down crypto prices along with the broader market – specifically, investors are spooked by the potential for a geopolitical conflict between the US and China when US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to visit Taiwan on Tuesday.

Investor nervousness on Tuesday was enough to push down even crypto’s highest-flying tokens, such as Ethereum Classic and Filecoin, which were down 1.4% and 9.5% respectively on Tuesday.

Ethereum Classic, which resulted from a 2016 split of the Ethereum platform, saw a 49.7% rise last week as some traders and miners upset about the Ethereum Network’s upcoming switch to proof-of-stake (which would eliminate mining) bought in. Filecoin, on the other hand, has jumped 56.8% in the past seven days, partly due to a new collaboration with Harvard University’s Library Innovation Lab, before dropping out on Tuesday.

Bitcoin and Ethereum’s Tuesday declines come after a week of good news. After the Fed announced it was raising interest rates, Bitcoin rode the wave of bullish market sentiment that lifted the S&P 500 2.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 4%. The world’s most popular crypto briefly passed $24,000 on July 27 before paring gains. The remaining bullish sentiment sent Bitcoin to a 30-day high of $24,572 on July 30, according to CoinMarketCap.

Ethereum also benefited, hitting a 30-day high of $1,774 per coin on July 28 based on bullish sentiment from the Fed rate hike as well as high hopes that the upcoming update dubbed “Merge,” set for September 15, will be a boon for the cryptocurrency.