Bitcoin (BTC) Jumps Back Above $22,000, Key Events to Watch This Week

12. Sep 2022 Posted by Akolkar B on News

Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader cryptocurrency market registered a strong move over the last weekend. The BTC price has shot up more than $22,000 following the strong confidence on Wall Street.

As of press time, Bitcoin is trading at $22,130 with a market cap of $424 billion. The BTC price has gained more than 17% after falling to a low of $19,000 last week. The BTC price has been closely related to the equity market, especially the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index.

This week is crucial to crypto as well as the broader equity markets. On Tuesday, September 13, the U.S. shall announce it inflation data for the month of August. If the inflation reading comes below expected, the market will give a positive reaction to it.

However, if the inflation stands to stay higher than the market expectations, we can see a more aggressive stand from the Fed going ahead. Ahead this month, the Federal Reserve shall be announcing an interest rate hike. As per market estimates, the Fed shall proceed ahead with a 75 basis points hike in September.

On the other hand, another major event this week will be the Ethereum Merge. The much-awaited event is just three days away from now and will transition the Ethereum blockchain to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network.

As a result, the Ethereum blockchain will become more efficient, scalable, with low transaction costs. Furthermore, the Merge event will also make the Ethereum blockchain more environmental-friendly.

The Ethereum developers have been working for a long time on the Merge event and things seem to going good so far after several delays in the past. However, any hiccups in the Merge event this week could put pressure on the ETH price as well as the entire crypto market.

The ETH price has witnessed a strong rally after hitting the low of $1,000 in mid-June. The ETH price rallied all the way to $2,000 since then before retracing back partially. As of press time, ETH is trading at a price of $1,752 with a market cap of $213 billion.

However, several market analysts believe that the Merge event could be “sell the news” which could put more pressure on the ETH price. However, the curiosity for the Merge event remains high across the globe. Singapore has emerged as the top destination with Merge-related searches on Google search followed by Canada and Switzerland in the second spot and Germany in the third spot.