Bitcoin (BTC) aimed for $68,000 at the July 22 Wall Street open as a Chinese interest rate cut added to bullish crypto catalysts.
China enacts "unexpected" rate cuts
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC price moves targeting range highs after a dip below $67,000 earlier in the day.
The upward reversion came amid mixed performances from Asia stocks as China cut several key interest rates in a step that “surprised markets.”
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) confirmed that it would cut the seven-day reverse repo rate by 0.1% to 1.7%, while the one-year and five-year loan prime rate (LPR) followed suit, sources including Reuters reported.
“The cut today is an unexpected move, likely due to the sharp slowdown in growth momentum in the second quarter as well as the call for 'achieving this year's growth target' by the third plenum,” Larry Hu, chief China economist at global financial services firm Macquarie Group, told the publication.
Reacting, markets commentator Holger Zchaepitz noted that it had been almost a year since the last Chinese rate cut.
“Chinese stock market not really enthusiastic,” he wrote in part of a post on X.
Global interest rates heading lower is a key ingredient for risk asset performance, including crypto. As Cointelegraph reported, the United States has yet to follow China and Europe in beginning a rate cut cycle, with markets expecting this to begin in September.
Adopting a more conservative stance, popular crypto and macro commentator TMXC Trades suggested that China’s select cuts would not have the desired effect.
“Coming into 2024, traders were betting on a massive coordinated global easing cycle (after they totally underestimated hikes) that would reverse half or more of all tightening. Here today in mid-July, virtually none of that has come to pass,” it concluded.
Bitcoin traders boost talk of all-time highs
Bitcoin itself meanwhile stood before the last cluster of resistance before all-time highs, this including the $69,000 level in play since late 2021.
“Bitcoin has cancelled out almost the entirety of the -25.6% retrace,” popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital noted in his latest X analysis.
“It took two weeks to almost fully cancel out a five week retrace.”
An accompanying chart compared recent BTC price behavior to other retracements over the bull market, calculating the latest as the uptrend’s deepest.
“Any dips to retest $65,000 would not be out of the ordinary but generally such Weekly Closes have preceded upside to $71,500,” another post continued.
Rekt Capital reiterated the case for new all-time highs in September “at the latest.”
“Bitcoin is back in the range and provides a lot of strength,” Michaël van de Poppe, founder and CEO of trading firm MNTrading, added on the day.
Van de Poppe flagged $65,000 as an important level to hold as support going forward, with the range lows at around $61,000 as the next line of defense below.
“If that's going to happen this week, then we should be good for continuation toward the ATH,” he predicted.
