Investing.com– Bitcoin price rose on Friday as the world’s largest cryptocurrency recovered a measure of recent losses, although its rebound was largely stalled by persistent uncertainty over U.S. interest rates.
rose 3.3% over the past 24 hours to $67,615.0 by 01:09 ET (05:09 GMT). The token had fallen as low as $64,000 earlier in the week, as broader risk appetite soured.
An earthquake in Taiwan, worsening geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and the threat of higher-for-longer U.S. interest rates kept traders largely biased towards the dollar and other safe haven assets.
The rose on Friday, while remained in sight of record highs hit earlier in the week.
A slew of hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials also weighed on risk appetite, as several members of the central bank warned that sticky inflation will keep the Fed from cutting interest rates early.
Bitcoin price set for weekly loss as nonfarm payrolls approach
The world’s largest cryptocurrency was trading down about 3% over the past five days, setting it up for a weekly loss.
Bitcoin has floundered within a limited trading range after notching record highs of over $73,000 in March. This downturn coincided with weakness in the U.S. stock market and other major risk-driven assets, which clocked a weak start to the second quarter.
Capital flows into the recently-approved Bitcoin exchange-traded funds were also seen slowing in recent weeks, as was trading activity in the space.
While the ETF approval was a key driver of Bitcoin’s gains earlier this year, this trend now appeared to be running out of steam.
Focus was now on data due later on Friday, which is widely expected to factor into the outlook for U.S. interest rates. Higher-for-longer rates bode poorly for Bitcoin, which usually thrives in low-rate, high-liquidity markets.
Crypto prices today: ETH lags, XRP rebounds from 1-mth low
Among other cryptocurrency prices, fell 0.8%, lagging its peers as the Securities and Exchange Commission prepared its decision on spot ETFs for the world no.2 cryptocurrency.
The SEC was also seen investigating whether Ethereum can be classified as a security.
Among other units, rose 1.8%, recovering from a one-month low hit earlier this week. But the outlook for the token remained bleak with the SEC’s case against now set to proceed in April.
