Crypto wrap: Market flat amid anticipation of another 25 bps hike by US Fed

The cryptocurrency market traded flat in the last week in anticipation of another rate hike of 25 basis points (bps) by the US Federal Reserve. In the last several days, Bitcoin was up 0.79 per cent and was trading at $29,359 on Friday, according to CoinMarketCap.

Ethereum, the second-largest digital token by market cap, was up 0.72 per cent and was trading at $1,846. The total market cap was $1.6 trillion at the start of the week. On Friday, it was $1.7 trillion. 

"While inflation remains notably higher than the Fed's desired 2 per cent target, the decelerating prices are expected to take some of the pressure off the Federal Reserve to keep hiking rates. The US central bank delivered another 25 bps hike last month, expected to be the last one for now," the research team of crypto exchange CoinDCX said. 

"The July retail inflation data for the US did not influence the price of Bitcoin much," said Edul Patel, co-founder and chief executive officer of Mudrex added. In July, the US inflation figures were 3.2 per cent, significantly higher than the Fed's target of 2 per cent. 

Market data also showed that the volatility in Bitcoin has been low in the last seven days. 

According to Parth Chaturvedi, investments lead at CoinSwitch Ventures, the low volatility in Bitcoin's prices is followed by "strong directional moves". 

"For that to happen though, trading volumes need to bounce back, which too have trended lower in the past few weeks," he added. 

According to Patel, the big news in the crypto world was the partnership of Microsoft and altcoin Aptos. In the last seven days, it has surged nearly 5 per cent. 

Paypal also launched their new stablecoin, backed by the US Dollar, pegged PYUSD. PayPal USD is built on Ethereum and is 1:1 redeemable for US dollars.