Bitcoin’s price fell 2.5% to $60,300 on Friday as Federal Reserve officials weighed their options for combatting stubborn price inflation in the United States.
Bitcoin traded for $63,400, at noon UTC on Friday, before plummeting below $61,000 over the next few hours.
According to Coinglass, the volatility triggered $175 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours. The single largest liquidation took place on a Binance BTC/USDT trade for $3.56 million.
Speaking at a Louisiana Bankers Association conference in New Orleans this week, Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan suggested it may be “too early to think about cutting rates,” according to Reuters.
“I need to see some of these uncertainties resolved about the path that we’re on, and we need to remain very flexible,” Logan said.
For the past few months, core PCE inflation – the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation metric – has failed to make meaningful progress towards the central bank’s 2% target. What’s more, data on Friday showed a jolt to consumers’ inflation expectations, with year-ahead expectations rising to 3.5% next May.
During an interview with Reuters, Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic predicted that interest rates will still come down – but possibly only by 25 basis points before the end of the year.
“I still have that belief,” he said, noting that it is “going to take some time” before inflation finally falls.
Lower interest rates are perceived as a boon for Bitcoin and stocks, affording investors cheaper debt for buying up risk assets.
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