Last week, the price of Bitcoin fluctuated in the range of $61-69 thousand.

Last week, the price of Bitcoin fluctuated in the range of $61-69 thousand per coin. Experts attribute the cryptocurrency’s volatility to the Fed rate, potential SEC proceedings with Ethereum, and outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs. According to their forecasts, as a result, Bitcoin may correct to $60 thousand. However, expectations of high levels, up to $100 thousand, by the beginning of 2025 remain.

According to Coinmarketcap, having opened last week with quotes above $69 thousand, Bitcoin fell in price to $63 thousand, and on some days it briefly fell below $61 thousand. The cryptocurrency failed to repeat the previous record and exceed the $70 thousand level over the past seven days.

The correction occurred in two stages: first, Bitcoin showed a sharp drop from $67 thousand on March 19 to $61.1 thousand on March 20, after which there was a rebound back to $67 thousand on March 21, and then a smooth decline. By the weekend, quotes reached $62.6 thousand; on March 24, Bitcoin was trading at $65.2 thousand.

The maximum correction depth within the week was almost 12%, and from the local maximum on March 14 ($73.75 thousand) – more than 17%.

The trading price range for ether, the second largest global cryptocurrency, turned out to be wider – $3.05–3.7 thousand. The amplitude of movement of less popular cryptocurrencies reached 20–25%.

High volatility, which would definitely be considered a strong shock on the stock market, is more likely to be commonplace for the cryptocurrency market, says OKX Commercial Director Lennix Lai. It intensified in anticipation of the halving on the Bitcoin network in April, the expert explains, the range of exchange rate fluctuations expanded, but “this cannot be called a collapse or fall of the crypto market.”

Taking into account the sell-off of cryptocurrency amid the outflow of assets from the Grayscale Bitcoin fund, “the correction of the coin can be called moderate,” adds Nikita Vassev, founder of TerraCrypto. “Observations show that in similar circumstances the depth of correction often reaches 30%,” he clarifies.

Experts interviewed by Kommersant note two important events that could become the key reasons for cryptocurrency surges.

The first is the announcement of the Fed rate, which was left at current values, notes Vagiz Nurullov, managing partner of VG GROUP. Although market participants did not expect changes in relation to the rate itself, the expert clarifies, they “attentively followed the signals about further monetary policy following the meeting.” The main concerns, Mr. Nurullov explains, were that the regulator would decide to postpone the reduction of the key rate to the second half of the year – this would put pressure on high-risk assets. “Under such conditions, market participants preferred to take profits and close positions to reduce risk,” Mr. Lai said.

Another important news for the market, according to Mr. Nurullov, was the potential SEC litigation with Ethereum and the declaration of this asset as a security, which “creates big problems for trading this cryptocurrency and severely limits trading activities.”

In addition, on March 18, there was a net outflow of funds from spot Bitcoin ETFs of $154 million. For the entire week, the outflow amounted to $850 million. “This also put pressure on the Bitcoin price,” Mr. Lai believes. At the same time, in the last working days of the week, Bitcoin “stopped responding to the outflow of capital from the Grayscale fund,” Mr. Vassev believes.

“The nearest support level for Bitcoin is around $60 thousand,” says Roman Nekrasov, co-founder of the ENCRY Foundation. There is a high probability that the cryptocurrency will “try to break through this level” in the coming week, he adds. A positive scenario, according to the expert’s forecasts, allows for “bitcoin to escape from bearish pressure and return to $68-69 thousand.” But Mr. Nekrasov considers such a development less likely than a correction to $60 thousand.

Nevertheless, experts remain optimistic. The pace at which Bitcoin grew at the beginning of the year “suggests that it will meet 2025 at levels above $100 thousand,” says Mr. Vassev: “At the same time, growth will inevitably be accompanied by corrections that will shake out all weak hands from the market.”

Ksenia Kulikova