Crypto wrap: Market flat as US Fed's comments keep investors cautious

US Federal Reserve's this week comments suggested that the interest rates may remain high for some time to come

The total market cap of the cryptocurrency market was $1.055 trillion on September 22 as compared to $1.056 on September 15, last Friday. During the week, it rose to $1.08 trillion on September 18 but fell during the course of the week.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, was trading at $26,610 on Friday, 0.13 per cent in the red in the last seven days, according to CoinMarketCap. Ethereum, the second largest digital token, was down over 2 per cent during the same period and was trading at $1,595 on Friday.

According to experts, the US Federal Reserve's comments, which suggested that the interest rates may remain high for some time to come, kept the investors cautious.

"The big catalyst for crypto markets last week was the macro developments around the US Federal Reserve's interest rate trajectory. The Fed paused further interest rate hikes during its meeting but also suggested that it is ready to keep interest rates 'higher for longer' in order to keep inflation in check," said Parth Chaturvedi, Investments Lead, CoinSwitch Ventures.

"Further estimates for interest rate cuts next year are now down to two. Both these developments have a negative impact on risky assets and resulted in some selling pressure across the board."

"Additionally, we saw an increase in the 10-year US treasury yields, reaching the highest point in 16 years. This change likely had an impact on how the overall financial markets were behaving," the research team of crypto exchange CoinDCX said.

During the week, US 10-year treasury yields touched 4.490 per cent, the highest since November 2007. Generally, higher treasury yields push the customers to move from equity markets to the bond markets. This also brings the stock markets down.

According to Edul Patel, chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of Mudrex, some good news that kept the bulls fighting despite the Fed's comments were: First, Deutsche Bank announced that it is working with Taurus, a Swiss startup, to establish digital asset custody and tokenisation services.

Second, Japanese investment bank Nomura, announced a Bitcoin-based fund for institutional investors, showing a gain in the interest in institutional adoption.

"While breaking resistance suggests potential gains, historical September trends remain a factor to consider," said Rajagopal Menon, vice president at WazirX.