Bitcoin Falls Below $20,000 Over the Weekend Amid Fed Pressure While Ether Holds on to $1,350

Bitcoin's price has continued to trade within a relatively tight range recently, retaining its value even as US Federal Reserve policies threaten the values of risk assets. As things stand, the value of Bitcoin is down by 0.1 percent in the last 24 hours with its price now around the $19,440 (roughly Rs. 16.02 lakh) mark across global exchanges while Indian exchanges like CoinDCX value BTC at $20,389 (roughly Rs. 16.8 lakh), almost identical to where its value stood at the end of Friday.

On global exchanges like CoinMarketCap, Coinbase, and Binance the price of Bitcoin stands at $19,408 (roughly Rs. 16.02 lakh) while CoinGecko data shows that BTC's value now sits 2.1 percent higher than where it stood last Monday.

Ether, the largest smart contracts token, has shown a lack of involvement from investors, which can be explained by the low trading volumes over the weekend. Ether is currently up by roughly 0.39 percent over the past 24 hours, continuing to trade in the $1,350 (roughly Rs. 1.1 lakh) range across global exchanges. Meanwhile on Indian exchanges, ETH is valued at $1,372 (roughly Rs. 1.13 lakh) where values are down by 1.16 percent over the past day.

Gadgets 360's cryptocurrency price tracker reveals that most major altcoins have started the week with minor gains with the global crypto market capitalisation also climbing 0.78 percent through late Sunday and early Monday.

Cardano, Avalanche, Cosmos, Solana, Polygon, TRON, Chainlink, and BNB all gained value over the last 24 hours. Monero, and Uniswap, meanwhile, saw minor slip-ups.

Memecoins Shiba Inu and Dogecoin haven't begun the week on even footing. Dogecoin is currently valued at $0.06 (roughly Rs. 5.13) after adding 1.1 percent in value over the last 24 hours, while, Shiba Inu is valued at $0.000011 (roughly Rs. 0.000907), down 0.34 percent over the past day.

"Since the plunge a few days back, Bitcoin has been trading in a tight range. Though BTC struggled to move above its psychological support level, it did not dip below it. BTC managed to find some stability above the $19,000 (roughly Rs. 15.65 lakh) mark. The slowdown in the price of BTC is due to the investors returning to more macroeconomic cautiousness. BTC's dominance in the market has increased to 41 percent from 39 percent on Septeber 10. It indicates that market participants are choosing BTC over other cryptos. If buyers can hold the gained initiative, we might soon see BTC trade above the $19,600 (roughly Rs. 16.15 lakh) zone. But if buyers lose control over the $19,000 mark, one can expect a sharp drop," explains Edul Patel, CEO and co-founder of crypto investment firm Mudrex speaking to Gadgets 360.

"The second largest cryptocurrency, Ether, was seen changing hands above the $1,300 (roughly Rs. 1.07 lakh) level in the past week. The price of Ethereum is trying to rebound from its support trendline. The price may likely consolidate for a few more sessions," Patel added.

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