Following its decline below $29,000 for the first time in a month on Monday, bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $29,100 early Tuesday. The bearish price action comes ahead of the Federal Reserve’s expected 25 basis point interest rate hike on Wednesday afternoon. With investors fully anticipating the move, Mike Schwitalla, head of trading at Crypto Finance AG, will be looking to see if market participants receive the actual decision as hawkish. Should slight selloffs ensue in risk markets, he’s looking at support zones for bitcoin around $28,000, $26,000, and $25,000.

Bitcoin 24 hour price chart (CoinDesk)

The U.K.'s data watchdog, the Information Commissions Office (ICO), will examine Worldcoin, the project by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. "We note the launch of WorldCoin in the U.K. and will be making further enquiries," a spokesperson for the Information Commissioner's Office told CoinDesk. “[Organizations] need to have a clear lawful basis to process personal data,” the spokesperson continued. “Where they are relying on consent, this needs to be freely given and capable of being withdrawn without detriment." Worldcoin, which launched on Monday, describes itself as a digital passport that can help holders prove they are human. The project already had 2 million users from its beta launch.

Crypto investment products suffered $6.5 million of weekly outflows, according to crypto asset manager CoinShares, breaking a four-week string of inflows that totaled $742 million. Bitcoin-related products led the way, with $13 million of outflows as its price buckled below $30,000, with investors instead putting some money into cryptos like ether (ETH) and Ripple’s XRP.BTC investors have seemingly run out of positive news to bid on after the rally that followed global asset management giant BlackRock filing for a long-coveted spot BTC ETF on June 15. The BlackRock news led to a swarm of competitors renewing their applications, and spurred investors to pile money into BTC-focused investment funds over the next month at the fastest pace since October 2021.

A message from Kraken

(AgnosticPreachersKid/Wikimedia)

The U.S. Federal Reserve is set to announce its interest rate decision on Wednesday and the question is not whether it will hike the benchmark borrowing cost by 25 basis points , but whether the increase will mark the end of a tightening cycle that began 16 months ago and was partly responsible for last year's crypto market crash.

With markets fully anticipating the central bank to raise its benchmark fed funds rate to a 22-year high of 5.25%-5.5%, investors will be looking to the accompanying policy statement and the post-meeting press conference from Chairman Jerome Powell for clues about the future course of monetary policy.

While economist surveys and futures markets show near-unanimity that tomorrow’s expected rate hike will be the final one of this tightening cycle, there are a number of both crypto and traditional finance analysts that believe the Fed will raise rates at least one additional time this year.

- Omkar Godbole