The Fed’s rate hikes no longer affect Bitcoin, and it seems increasingly unlikely that Bitcoin will experience large fluctuations in the short term, with most Bitcoin white whales neither selling nor buying more assets.

Bitcoin seems less and less likely to see big moves in the short term

At the start of the Asian session, Bitcoin was trading just above $29,240, down 0.3% over the past 24 hours.

Since mid-June, Bitcoin's price has fluctuated between $29,000 and $31,800, unaffected by rate hikes, inflation fears and other macro concerns. Brent Xu, CEO and co-founder of Web3 bond market platform Umee, said the status quo is likely to continue.

“Bitcoin barely moved following the Fed’s most recent rate hike, suggesting that rate hikes are pretty much priced in for this time. This certainly demonstrates the resilience of Bitcoin, and indeed the broader digital asset market. But I don’t expect a meaningful breakout anytime soon.”

Ethereum was also relatively volatile, with the most recent trading price at $1,862, down 0.4% over the past 24 hours. Other major cryptocurrencies were largely in negative territory.

Xu doesn’t expect bitcoin to return to “bull territory” until the bitcoin halving in 2024. “That’s also when the Fed is likely to start cutting rates,” he wrote. “I would caution that if there were some kind of disruption, like a credit crunch or a deepening banking crisis, the cuts could come much sooner.”

Most Bitcoin Whales Neither Sold nor Purchased More Assets

The supply for addresses holding 10 to 100 Bitcoins has dropped slightly, suggesting that these larger Bitcoin holders are content to wait for now. Addresses holding 1,000 to 10,000 Bitcoins have shown similar behavior.

Data provided by on-chain analytics firm Glassnode highlights that investors are reluctant to either add or subtract money from their Bitcoin holdings, but they also do not believe that Bitcoin is undervalued.

Curiously, the number of Bitcoins held by addresses between 10,000 and 100,000 Bitcoins rose slightly, although the supply balance remained stable for the largest Bitcoin holders, who hold more than 100,000 Bitcoins.

Each of these groups is worth watching because they have the ability to sway the market given the size of their positions and their appetite for risk (or lack thereof).

(Source: coindesk, for reference only)