Bitcoin Eyes $30K, XRP Price Jumps 6% After Ripple's Legal Victory

Bitcoin (BTC) passed $29,500 on Oct. 20 after an eventful 24 hours boosted BTC price trajectory while XRP price jumped above $0.50 in response to Ripple’s big legal win.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: TradingView

Hawkish Fed’s Powell fails to dent BTC price

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it edged closer to two-month highs from the start of the week.

The largest cryptocurrency appeared to feed off events surrounding a speech from Jerome Powell, Chair of the United States Federal Reserve, the day prior.

Amid a U.S. bond rout, Powell was under pressure to deliver appropriate wording, and analysis even predicted a “very dovish” tone would dominate. In the event, the speech, which was briefly interrupted by protesters, saw Powell highly conservative on the outlook.

“The stance of policy is restrictive, meaning that tight policy is putting downward pressure on economic activity and inflation,” he said about interest rate hikes.

“Given the fast pace of the tightening, there may still be meaningful tightening in the pipeline.”

Powell said that the Fed acknowledged the potential problems of hiking rates too far.

“Doing too little could allow above-target inflation to become entrenched and ultimately require monetary policy to wring more persistent inflation from the economy at a high cost to employment. Doing too much could also do unnecessary harm to the economy,” he continued.

“Given the uncertainties and risks, and how far we have come, the Committee is proceeding carefully.”

Data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool showed changing tides among market expectations when it comes to future rate decisions.

At its next meeting on Nov. 1, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is now unanimously thought to hold rates at their current levels, per data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool. Before Powell, odds stood at 88%.