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Investing.com-- Bitcoin price weakened in Asian trade on Friday as strength in the dollar, which rebounded sharply to three-week highs, kept the world’s largest cryptocurrency pinned around $66,000.
Bitcoin traded down 1.4% at $66,082.0 by 01:20 ET (05:20 GMT). The token saw a heavy dose of consolidation from record highs over the past seven days, but still remained steady above weekly lows.
Strength in the dollar was the biggest source of pressure on crypto markets, as an unexpected interest rate cut from the Swiss National Bank and dovish signals from the Bank of England saw traders stick firmly to the greenback as among the few high-yielding, low risk currencies. The dollar index surged to a three-week high of over 104 points.
Bitcoin price heads for weekly loss amid dollar strength, profit-taking
The world’s largest cryptocurrency was now trading down about 5% from last Friday’s levels, amid pressure from the dollar and sustained profit-taking.
The token had surged to record highs above $73,000 last week, as it benefited from strong capital flows into the recently-approved spot exchange-traded funds in U.S. markets. These funds were a key point of support for Bitcoin so far in 2024, with the token trading up around 50% for the year.
Bitcoin also remained well above lows hit during the week, when anticipation of a Federal Reserve meeting drove the token as low as $60,000.
But the near-term outlook for the token was clouded by a strong dollar, as signs of resilience in the U.S. economy, in comparison to its peers in the developed world, made the greenback appear especially attractive. The Fed may also lag most of its central bank peers in cutting interest rates.
Still, with the Fed maintaining its outlook for at least three interest rate cuts in 2024, the dollar is expected to eventually decline. Markets are still positioned for a 25 basis point cut in June, according to the CME Fedwatch tool.
Such a scenario bodes well for Bitcoin, given that the token’s highly speculative nature helps it thrive in a low-rate environment.
A halving event, which is expected to slash the generation of new Bitcoin by 50%, is also expected to push up prices in 2024. The halving is expected to occur by April.
