Investing.com-- Bitcoin price recovered slightly on Friday, reversing a pullback from a day earlier as inflows into spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) turned positive again, registering positive flows for four consecutive days.
Still, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency remained squarely within a tight $60,000 to $70,000 trading range established over the past two months, seeing few catalysts to break out amid tepid risk appetite.
Bitcoin climbed 0.7% to $66,476.7 by 08:57 ET (12:57 GMT).
Bitcoin price set for strong week amid some rate cut hopes
Following today’s uptick, Bitcoin is sitting on strong gains over the past seven days, especially since it had fallen as low as $60,000 last week.
The token was up around 8% from lows hit last Friday, spurred chiefly by weakness in the dollar amid some signs of easing U.S. inflation.
Some soft consumer price index (CPI) readings saw traders begin pricing in a greater chance that the Fed will cut interest rates in September- a scenario that bodes well for speculative assets such as Bitcoin and other cryptos.
But this enthusiasm somewhat dwindled recently, limiting Bitcoin’s gains after a string of Fed officials warned that the central bank needed more convincing that inflation was coming down.
Members of the Fed’s rate-setting committee said the central bank needed to see more than just some soft inflation readings for one month before locking in any plans for interest rate cuts.
Their comments sparked a sharp recovery in the dollar, and also stalled a rally across most risk-driven assets.
In addition to uncertainty over U.S. rates, sentiment towards crypto also remained constrained by fears of more regulatory action against the industry.
Crypto price today: altcoins track Bitcoin’s gains
Among broader cryptocurrency markets, major altcoins followed Bitcoin into the green territory.
World no.2 token Ethereum rose 3.3%, while Solana and XRP advanced 3.8% and 1.7%, respectively.
The recent sell-off in Ethereum has now stalled, with bears encountering resistance at an upward-sloping trendline from the October and January lows, per TradingView data.
Since Monday, the inability of bears to break this bull-market trendline suggests a potential price bounce before any further declines. Ether has dropped more than 15% to $3,000 from highs near $4,100 two months ago.
Supporting this potential bounce, the daily MACD histogram has turned positive, indicating renewed bullish momentum. The MACD is a widely used indicator for gauging trend strength and changes.
Intraday momentum is improving, with the 50-hour simple moving average (SMA) trending upwards, providing reassurance. Immediate resistance is at the 50-day SMA near $3,180, followed by a descending trendline from the recent correction at $3,225.
Meanwhile, meme tokens saw limited gains of less than 1% as a rally in meme stocks such as GameStop Corp (NYSE:NYSE:GME) and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (NYSE:NYSE:AMC) largely reversed course in recent sessions.