Bitcoin and ether dip after Friday rally amid rate-cut expectations, reports of Trump assassination attempt

Bitcoin BTC -2.27% dipped 2.7% over the past 24 hours to trade at around $58,551 as investors continue to weigh the potential impact of a widely expected interest-rate cut by the United States Federal Reserve.

Bitcoin reached a high of around $60,600 over the weekend before dropping to around $58,551 on Monday at 1:20 am EST, according to The Block’s price page . Ether slid 5.38% to change hands at around $2,289.

The timing of the price declines also coincides with reports of another assassination attempt on former U.S. President and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

“While it is difficult to say that the price drop is directly related to the assassination attempt on [Donald] Trump, the timing does coincide with a sharper move lower in crypto markets,” Min Jung, an analyst at Presto Research, told The Block. “However, we believe this is more likely due to crypto giving up the gains seen on Friday, which were not experienced by equities, and a broader risk-off movement ahead of the FOMC meeting,” Jung added.

The next Federal Open Market Committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, with investors and policymakers anticipating a rate-cut announcement.

“The truth is that we are still at $58,000 and [the bitcoin price] hasn’t moved in two weeks outside of a small break to $54,000 and $60,000, so all of this is really noise,” said Augustine Fan, head of insights at SOFA.org.  “The possible reason crypto went up on Friday is due to the massive squeeze in SOFR futures (50 basis point cut) and resulting equity rally, rather than anything crypto-specific. We are failing to see a carry-through of that momentum in today’s session."

“The Trump assassination attempt is a non-factor for macro markets for now,” Fan said.