BTC Falls Below $60K

CoinDesk 20 Index: 1,826.12 -0.65%

Bitcoin (BTC): $59,919.93 +1.38%

Ether (ETH): $2,307.97 -0.13%

Nikkei 225: 36,380.17 +0.49%

Bitcoin (BTC) is trading above $60,000 as investors around the world await the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, where Chairman Jerome Powell is set to announce interest rate cuts.

BTC is trading just above $60,300, up nearly 4 percent in the last 24 hours, bringing its weekly gain to over 7 percent.

Ether (ETH), BNB Chain’s BNB token, and dogecoin (DOGE) are up around 1%, while XRP, Cardano’s ADA token, and Toncoin’s TON are posting slight losses. The CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index, which measures the crypto market comprehensively, is gaining 1.1%.

While ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency, seems to be unpopular at the moment, Bitwise reported that the token’s performance could reverse towards the end of the year.

The asset manager added that ether has barely changed since the beginning of the year, while bitcoin (BTC) has increased by 38 percent and Solana’s SOL token has increased by 31 percent in the same period.

The report highlighted that ether’s recent underperformance is due to risks related to the US presidential election in November, competition from Solana and other blockchains, challenging tokenomics, and the introduction of spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US.

BitGo plans to launch a dollar-backed stablecoin next year and is trying to stand out by offering rewards to institutions that provide liquidity to the network.

The currency, called USDS, will be backed by short-term Treasury bonds, repo and cash, like other stablecoins on the market. BitGo’s offering will differentiate itself from rivals with a rewards-based approach that incentivizes institutions to provide liquidity to the USDS network and distributes a portion of the returns from their reserves.

CEO Mike Belshe: “At the end of each month, we generate a return on the cash held in the fund and return that to participants on a pro rata basis based on the holding of the asset.”

The chart shows that Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, recorded its highest spot trading volume for bitcoin in three months. The periods when Binance volume spiked on Aug. 20 and 24 marked local peaks in the BTC price, which could indicate that BTC is pausing before experiencing a short-term pullback.