Bitcoin prices rose back above $43,000 for the first time in two weeks on Monday as markets considered the possibility of another interest rate freeze at this week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting.
There were also signs that outflows from Grayscale Investments’ spot Bitcoin ETF may be slowing.
“It’s only been about an hour since trading began, but so far IBIT’s volume is ahead of GBTC,” said Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analyst James Seyffart. wrote “Today could be the first day that one of the new nine trades more than GBTC, which is currently worth $155 million to $113 million.”
Tuesday’s price action resulted in the liquidation of more than $60 million worth of short cryptocurrency positions, according to Coinglass data. Over the past 24 hours, liquidated Bitcoin leveraged positions have surged to over $40 million, of which over $24 million were shorts.
The largest digital asset by market capitalization rose more than 2% in the past 24 hours and was trading at $43,201 as of 12 PM ET, according to The Block data.
Bitcoin price exceeded $43,000. Image: Block.
Possible Fed rate pause
Today’s Bitcoin rally comes as markets are expecting the Federal Reserve to pause interest rates at this week’s FOMC meeting. According to the CME FedWatch tool, there is a 97.9% chance that the Fed interest rate will remain within its current target range of 5.25% to 5.50%.
Ryze Labs highlighted that Bitcoin is classified as a “risky” asset, indicating the possibility of: 
BTC
+2.34%
This is a scenario that could be facilitated by interest rate pauses and potential interest rate cuts to better outperform in a strong bull market.
However, Ryze Labs founder Mathew Graham said the possibility of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate freeze has already been largely factored into the market.
“The Fed is already expected to pause rates, so this week’s FOMC meeting will probably largely be priced in,” he told The Block. “But if, after the pause, the Fed cuts interest rates further than already expected, that would absolutely have a bullish effect on the price of Bitcoin.”
Ryze Labs analysts added that institutional interest in Bitcoin will continue to grow, with expectations that spot Bitcoin ETF inflows will increase as fund managers increase their sales cycles and sales teams become familiar with new products.
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