Odaily Planet Daily News Bitcoin fell below the $60,000 mark ahead of a widely expected rate cut by the Federal Reserve later this week. The Fed's upcoming policy adjustment has made global markets nervous. The first rate cut in the United States in more than four years indicates a looser financial environment, which is generally a positive backdrop for riskier assets such as cryptocurrencies. But investors are unsure about the magnitude of the rate hike on Wednesday, or how the market will react to the latest forecasts from Fed officials (the so-called dot plot) and a briefing from Fed Chairman Powell. "Rate cuts are less important than the signals from the press conference and the latest dot plot," said Sean McNulty, head of trading at liquidity provider Arbelos Markets. "If the guidance and press conference are clearly dovish, we expect Bitcoin to rise." Bitcoin prices rose 10% in the seven days ending last Sunday, the biggest weekly gain since July, which may reflect a rebound in bets on a 50 basis point rate cut by the Federal Reserve. Caroline Mauron, co-founder of Orbit Markets, a provider of liquidity for digital asset derivatives trading, said that in the bitcoin options market, traders are pricing in a "significantly greater weight than we have seen recently" on the Fed meeting. Arguably, the outlook for monetary policy has become the main factor driving Bitcoin’s short-term performance, overshadowing (at least for now) the impact of the U.S. presidential election. (Bloomberg)